In a few week’s time, London’s highest viewing gallery will open, and you’ll be able to look down at the Shard and across an awful lot of London. And it’ll be free to visit. Yes, totally free!
The viewing gallery is Horizon 22, a play on the view of the horizon that you’ll get to see, and the skycraper’s address of 22 Bishopsgate. It’s quite a remarkable view, even if you’ve been up London’s other viewing galleries, thanks to the very high space they’ve created and the deliberate choice to use a low-iron glass that lacks the very slight tint that most office glass comes with.
Entry is from a large doorway at the front of the skyscraper, so not hidden away, and once up an escalator and through the usual security checks you expect these days, and then straight up the ear-popping elevator to the 58th floor.
It’s a large space, with minimal decoration, because frankly, you’re not here to look at the walls but out through the windows.
There are views all the way around about 300 degrees of the building, with the northeast corner of the building blocked off to house the utilities for the skyscraper and access upstairs to three floors of restaurants. The restaurants will also be open to the public, and we’re promised that there will be a range of prices to ensure it’s not exclusive.
The viewing gallery — at 254 metres above ground vs. the 244 metres for the View from the Shard is not just the highest in London, but because it’s free to visit, it’ll be the highest in Europe that’s free of charge. On a clear day we’re told that you can see from Southend in the east to Windsor Castle in the west.
The viewing gallery will open to the public on Wednesday 27th September, and to visit, they are recommending that people book tickets in advance, and free tickets will be available from the Horizon 22 website on the morning of Wednesday 20th September.
They will hold back 10 percent of the tickets each day to allow for people to walk in on the day if there’s space, but candidly that’s unlikely in the opening months as people flock to visit. Horizon 22 will be open 7 days a week (except Christmas/NYE) from 10am, closing at 6pm on weekdays, 5pm on Saturdays and 4pm on Sundays and Bank Holidays.
In the meantime, here’s a preview of what you will be able to see.
Blimey, the Shard is £28-£37, let’s hope that “the market” does its thing and they’ll get more reasonable.
This looks great!
Last viewing gallery I tried was in the walkie talkie. It was good (I mean, free is the best price) but I remember the animals skins on the seating… felt it was very poor taste
Minimal / empty design of this new one much more sensible
Beautiful photos.
Omg. Hope they have resuscitation and defibrillator equipment on hand and that it is never too crowded. Wonderful in its way but methinks conceived and carried out by young designers and engineers, even though the Contracting funds may be aged. There is something Mediaevally satisfying in the notion of being able to view the length of The Thames from a Tower location.
“Sorry, tickets are not available for this event”. I don’t know what event they have in mind, but in fact no tickets are available at all. Wassup? They can’t have sold out forever… can they?
I see that same message today. When I checked a couple of days ago it was only showing availability upto 20th October but most dates apart from 2 were fully booked from the opening date and the dates after were grayed out (without the – though them which apparently means fully booked) so assumed one can only book 4 weeks in advance . No clear communications or advice. Bit poor and can’t be bothered with it now.