What is the Shard?
Q: What is the Shard?
A: The Shard (also referred to as the Shard of Glass, Shard London Bridge or the London Bridge Tower) is a high-rise building in Southwark, London.
Q: When was it built?
A: The Shard was built in July 2012.
Q: How tall is it?
A: It is 309.6 metres (1,016 ft) high.
Q: Where does it rank among tallest buildings in the world?
A: It was the tallest building in the European Union until late 2020, and 96th tallest in the world.
Q: Who designed it?
A: Renzo Piano was the Shard's architect. Piano is best known for creating Paris’s Pompidou Centre in cooperation with Britain’s Richard Rogers. Piano worked with the architectural firm Broadway Malyan during the planning stage.
Q: What features does it have?
A: The tower has 72 floors that can be used for offices, with a viewing gallery and open-air observation deck –the UK's highest– on the 72nd floor, at a height of 245 metres (804 ft). The Shard is covered entirely in glass and has an irregular pyramidal shape from bottom to top.
Q: What inspired its design?
A: Its design was inspired by railway lines next to its site, 18th-century Venetian painter Canaletto's paintings of London spires, and masts of sailing ships.
