Uploads from LondonCamera

Shard London Bridge

nobody@flickr.com (LondonCamera) — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 00:58:53 -0800

Renzo Piano's London Shard building, still under construction close to the River Thames on a bright, sunny day in London Bridge, Southwark.

Type FD 12 MK V11

Shard London Bridge

nobody@flickr.com (LondonCamera) — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 00:58:44 -0800

LondonCamera posted a photo:

The once mighty Southwark Cathedral (right edge) is now dwarfed by the surrounding buildings, not least the terracotta coloured cube-shaped Number One London Bridge building and the London Shard tower, currently under construction half a mile behind it.

The exterior glass panelling is now catching up to the completed floors, so I expect work adding the remaining floors will resume within the next few weeks. The standard floors will continue up to the top of the concrete central column, though the glass cladding will go higher still, incorporating an observation deck and some maintenance floors.

London Shard of Glass

nobody@flickr.com (LondonCamera) — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 00:58:34 -0800

LondonCamera posted a photo:

The London Shard of Glass tower by Renzo Piano, under construction and surrounded by cranes at dusk as the sun sets on another busy day in London.

London Bridge can be seen lit up in red, as a few ships approach it.

London Shard Almost Finished

nobody@flickr.com (LondonCamera) — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 00:58:15 -0800

LondonCamera posted a photo:

With just a few glass panels left to be fitted around the top of the new London Shard building, the UK's tallest tower is nearly complete, with only one of the four construction cranes left in place.

A few months ago, the top of the Shard's concrete 'spine' was still visible, and the London Pinnacle wasn't yet tall enough to see.

Meanwhile, the concrete core of the new 20 Fenchurch Street building is starting to reach up into the London skyline, to the right of the Shard in this shot. With the recession having its inevitable impact on construction in London, it may well be one of the last high-rise additions to the city for a while.

London Shard Nearly Finished

nobody@flickr.com (LondonCamera) — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 00:58:00 -0800

LondonCamera posted a photo:

The new Shard building in London Bridge nears completion, towering over the nearby Guy's Hospital tower and dwarfing the once mighty St Paul's Cathedral, situated across the River Thames and slightly west.

London Shard

nobody@flickr.com (LondonCamera) — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 00:57:50 -0800

LondonCamera posted a photo:

The Shard building in London Bridge begins its ascent to the top of London's skyline, as the central concrete spine at the heart of the tower rises above everything else along this stretch of the river, and begins to rival nearby Guy's Hospital (seen behind it).

The photo was actually a rather poor one, with the sun at an angle that blew some of the clouds and left the river front in dark shadow. It's been salvaged, but looks a bit over processed as a result. Unfortunately, the next time I was at that spot with a camera at the right time of day, the Shard was much taller.

London Shard Thames At Night

nobody@flickr.com (LondonCamera) — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 00:57:32 -0800

LondonCamera posted a photo:

The London Shard stands above most of the rest of London's illuminated night time skyline, dwarfing the once mighty Number One London Bridge building and Tower Bridge in the background.

Shard London Bridge

nobody@flickr.com (LondonCamera) — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 00:57:22 -0800

LondonCamera posted a photo:

The new Shard building in London Bridge is fairly close to completion now, at least on the outside. Pictured here at dusk, there are only a few more floors to be fitted out and clad in glass panelling before the final overlapping shard-like pieces are put into place at the very top.

Meanwhile, construction of its smaller glass cousin, London Place, is now under way below, with the central concrete pillar of that building already slightly higher than the Number One London Bridge building to the right of the photo.

The area's starting to look nice. Shame about the bridge itself. It has to be the most dull of all the Thames bridges in London, made worse by the fact it's one of the most well known and used. Perhaps they should replace it with a glass & steel road bridge that looks like a cross between the Millennium Foot Bridge and the Shard or Gherkin buildings?

Shard Building

nobody@flickr.com (LondonCamera) — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 00:57:13 -0800

LondonCamera posted a photo:

The Shard building in London Bridge, lit up at night with only a few remaining floors at the top to be completed before it finally looks finished from the outside.

The interior will still take most of 2012 to complete, but the fun of watching it rise into the London skyline and taking photos will soon be over.

London Shard

nobody@flickr.com (LondonCamera) — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 00:56:53 -0800

LondonCamera posted a photo:

The London Shard of Glass building by Renzo Piano, in the London Bridge area of the UK capital on a dull overcast day. The tower is drawing ever nearer to completion, as its glass cladding grows ever higher and the few remaining floors get added to the top.

A year ago, the Guy's Hospital tower, pictured here to the left of the Shard, was taller, with what was to become the UK's tallest building being just a concrete stump rising a floor or two per week.

The London Shard is due to be completed and fully fitted out in 2012, and will provide office space, residential apartments, hotel accommodation, restaurants, coffee bars, public viewing decks and more. About the only thing it'll lack is a cinema!

Shard Building London

nobody@flickr.com (LondonCamera) — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 00:56:41 -0800

LondonCamera posted a photo:

The London Shard is starting to take shape, as more and more floors sprout from the completed concrete central column, and the glass cladding continues to climb.

Only a matter of months ago, nearby Guy's Hospital towered above it. Now the Shard is making the hospital tower look smaller by the day, and it's still a long way from reaching it's final height, upon which it will be the tallest structure on the London skyline. St Paul's Cathedral, seen to the left of the photo, once held that title. But the 21st century has made it look so small.

Southwark London Shard Skyline

nobody@flickr.com (LondonCamera) — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 00:56:31 -0800

LondonCamera posted a photo:

Yet another photo of the London Bridge Shard of Glass tower under construction (well they're only going to build it once), this time taking in a bit of the surrounding area of Southwark.

That other famous iconic London glass building, The Gherkin can also be seen, looking over at the Shard from the other side of the River Thames.

Southwark is natively pronounced "suthuck" with a soft "th", as in 'they' or "Sotheby's". Not "south-warck", with a sharp "th" (like the Southfork ranch in Dallas as it's spelling suggests.

Shard Building London

nobody@flickr.com (LondonCamera) — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 00:54:57 -0800

LondonCamera posted a photo:

Construction of the 'Shard of Glass' tower in London Bridge is now into its final year, with the exterior glass cladding rising up the central column just as quickly as the column itself rose up into the London skyline last year.

It was desigend by Renzo Piano and is due to be completed in 2012. At this pace they'll almost certainly finish on time.

Shard London Bridge

nobody@flickr.com (LondonCamera) — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 00:54:46 -0800

LondonCamera posted a photo:

A blue sky with some fluffy white clouds reflects off the shiny new glass panels covering the London Shard building, currently under construction in the London Bridge area of Southwark.

The glass cladding is now over a third of the way up the building, with a few gaps (as shown in the photo) revealing the floors inside. It's not often that you see workers wandering around them from the ground, so presumably they like to keep well away from the edge.

London Shard Millennium Bridge

nobody@flickr.com (LondonCamera) — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 00:54:35 -0800

LondonCamera posted a photo:

The London Shard of Glass tower, rapidly taking shape a mile away from the Millennium Bridge and the pedestrians crossing it.

London Shard Almost Finished

nobody@flickr.com (LondonCamera) — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 00:54:17 -0800

LondonCamera posted a photo:

A BBC London news bulletin on Friday said that the final panels of the new Shard building in London Bridge were about to be fixed to the top of the tower, completing the exterior of the building three years after they started constructing the central column.

However by sundown it appeared that only three-and-a-bit of the four 'shard points' at the top were in place, and even those have a few missing glass panels. With a bit more work to the exterior clearly waiting to be done before completion, perhaps BBC London misunderstood whatever milestone was passed that day?

Poor visibility meant I didn't get any good photos, especially from further away, where I was lucky to get silhouettes.

London Shard Building

nobody@flickr.com (LondonCamera) — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 00:54:07 -0800

LondonCamera posted a photo:

Work on the outside of the new London Shard building in the London Bridge area is moving toward the final phase, as the white metal frame that will hold the final ends of the 'shard' faces of the building right at the top is being put in place.

The central column of the nearby London Place building, another glass-clad building intended to compliment the Shard, is now also climbing well into the sky, though it won't be nearly as tall as the Shard itself.

London Shard Building

nobody@flickr.com (LondonCamera) — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 00:53:53 -0800

LondonCamera posted a photo:

The Shard tower in the London Bridge area of the UK capital.

Still under constriction but starting to take shape, with lights on at night and the glass cladding finally being attached around the first few floors.

It should be completed in time for the 2012 Olympics.

London Millennium Bridge Shard

nobody@flickr.com (LondonCamera) — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 00:53:26 -0800

LondonCamera posted a photo:

The Millennium Bridge in London, viewed from the Victoria Embankment on the northern side of the River Thames. The North Bank catches the sun when it comes out in London, and so is very popular with joggers, tourists, people out for a walk and office workers wanting to sit in the sun on their lunch break. There's more to see walking along the South Bank, but due to England being high in the northern hemisphere, much of it's riverside walking routes is in the shadows of surrounding buildings.

In the background is the new Shard London Bridge tower, currently under construction and set to take over from Canary Wharf as the tallest building in London, and you can just make out Tower Bridge further down-river too.

Millennium Bridge London Shard

nobody@flickr.com (LondonCamera) — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 00:53:14 -0800

LondonCamera posted a photo:

The London Bridge Shard of Glass building continues to rise into the London skyline, already towering over everything else in the area and clearly visible through the Millennium Bridge, which links St Paul's Cathedral and the Tate Modern art gallery further along the River Thames.