Up you come, the view's amazing... first look from the Shard's public gallery

 
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27 October 2012

Visitors to the public gallery at the top of the Shard will take an 800ft "vertical journey" through London's history before climbing to the highest open air viewpoint west of the Urals.

Details were unveiled today of what the developers of western Europe’s tallest skyscraper hope will become a premier tourist attraction when it opens on 1 February.

The main viewing platform on the 69th floor has digital telescopes with large interactive touchscreens. They can be used to identify the famous sites around the tower, from which views will stretch for 40 miles on a clear day.

The 12 Tell:Scopes, installed for the first time in Europe, provide descriptions in 10 languages of 200 points of interest ranging from Tower Bridge to Southwark Park.

A Twitter competition to add 10 “lesser known” landmarks has been launched by TV historian Dan Snow.

The view through the Tell:Scopes can be switched from “real time” to a recorded clear-day version if visibility is bad. The gallery is expected to be completely swathed in cloud for four to five days a year, according to Anders Nyberg, chief executive of the View from the Shard.

The highest point of the experience is on the 72nd floor, a partially open air platform.

Visitors, who will pay up to £24.95 for the View from the Shard, will arrive at a new entrance on Joiner Street, next to London Bridge station.

A ground level screen will give information on the availability of tickets. They are being sold in 30-minute slots but once inside the Shard visitors can stay as long as they want.

As they enter, visitors will walk past screens showing scenes from neighbourhoods in the capital and will hear a new soundtrack performed by the London Symphony Orchestra.

A series of tongue in cheek panels showing famous Londoners in unlikely situations, such as Karl Marx and Margaret Thatcher sharing a tandem bicycle and George Orwell installing CCTV cameras, have also been installed at the entrance.

The first of two high-speed lifts will take visitors to the 33rd floor, where they will follow a floor map of the Thames to the second lift. This takes them to the 68th floor, before a final climb to the viewing gallery, which is about twice the height of the current tallest in the capital — the top of the London Eye.

Mr Nyberg said he expected most visitors to spend about an hour on their trip. There is no bar at the top of the tower but visitors can eat at restaurants on the 31st, 32nd and 33rd floors.

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