the mommy avenger

There is one thing I do in every single city we visit, without fail: I find the highest point I can and I go up. Call it a quirk, call it a habit, but there is something about looking down on a city from way up high that just clicks something into place for me. It gives me my bearings. It shows me how sprawling or how tight-knit a place really is, where the river bends, where the neighborhoods blend into each other, and it somehow makes the whole trip make more sense from that point forward. So when we found ourselves back in London this month — my most favorite city on the entire planet, hands down — there was only one place I was heading first: the top of The Shard.

Finding The Shard

You genuinely cannot miss it. The Shard rises up out of the London Bridge area like a glass icicle stabbed into the skyline, and once you spot it, you will find yourself glancing up at it for the rest of your trip no matter where you are in the city. It sits right next to London Bridge Station, which makes it one of the easiest big attractions in London to actually get to — you can hop off the Tube or the train and be standing at the base of it in about two minutes flat.

Riding to the Top

The ride up is honestly part of the experience. High-speed lifts whisk you up through the building in a matter of seconds, and by the time your ears pop, you are stepping out onto Level 68, then continuing up to the open-air sky deck on Level 72 — the highest publicly accessible outdoor viewing platform in the entire UK. Standing up there, with London spread out in every direction and no glass ceiling between you and the sky, is a completely different feeling than any indoor viewing platform I’ve been to. The wind, the openness, the sheer scale of it — it’s a lot, in the best way.

And the views. Oh, the views. On a clear day you can see for around 40 miles in every direction, which means you’re not just looking at central London, you’re looking at the entire city and beyond. We picked out Tower Bridge, the winding Thames, St. Paul’s Cathedral, the London Eye, and even traced out neighborhoods we’d wandered through earlier in the trip. It’s the kind of view that makes a sprawling, chaotic city suddenly feel understandable, like someone just handed you the map you didn’t know you needed.

More Than Just a View

Here’s what I loved most: The Shard doesn’t just hand you a view and call it a day. There’s genuinely a whole experience built into your visit.

• London Experts are stationed up top and are an absolute must if you want more than just pretty photos. They’ll point out landmarks, share stories about the city, and help you get your bearings even faster than I usually manage on my own.
• The champagne bar is, without exaggeration, the highest bar in London. Many couldn’t resist toasting their trips with a glass of champagne while looking out over the entire city — if you’re going to have a celebratory drink on your London trip, this is the place to do it.
• Seasonal installations rotate through regularly, so no two visits are quite the same.
• Because it’s an open-air deck, you get both a daytime and nighttime version of London, and honestly, I’d argue you need to experience both. The city looks completely different once the lights come on.

A Little History, Because I Can’t Help Myself

I always want to know the story behind the places we visit, and The Shard’s story is a good one. It was designed by the renowned Italian architect Renzo Piano, whose vision was inspired by London’s church spires and the masts of tall ships along the Thames — hence that dramatic, tapering glass silhouette that makes it so unmistakable on the skyline. Construction began in 2009, and the tower officially topped out in 2012 before opening its viewing gallery to the public in 2013. At just over 1,000 feet tall, it’s the tallest building in the United Kingdom, and it was built as a genuine “vertical city,” stacking offices, restaurants, a five-star hotel, and residences beneath that showstopping viewing deck at the very top.

It replaced an older 1970s office block that used to sit on the same spot, right beside one of London’s busiest transport hubs, and the whole area has transformed right alongside it. The London Bridge neighborhood around The Shard has become one of the liveliest pockets of the city — think Borough Market just a short stroll away for some of the best food you’ll eat on your whole trip, the Thames path for an easy riverside wander, and Tower Bridge close enough that you can walk straight to it after you come back down to earth.

Why You Need to Carve Out the Time

If you’re planning a London trip and wondering whether The Shard is worth squeezing into an already packed itinerary, my answer is an easy yes. It doesn’t take an entire day — you can realistically do it in an hour or two — but it will completely change how you experience the rest of your trip. Once you’ve seen the city laid out below you, every other stop on your itinerary suddenly has context. You’ll recognize landmarks you visit later. You’ll understand how neighborhoods connect. And you’ll have that one, unforgettable memory of standing above one of the greatest cities in the world with the wind in your hair.

My advice: book your tickets ahead of time directly through The View from The Shard, check the sunset time for the day you’re visiting, and try to time your visit so you catch London in both daylight and after dark. Trust me, you’ll want both versions of the memory.

London, you continue to be my favorite, and The Shard just gave me one more reason why.

^{*we were invited to facilitate a feature, all opinions are my own*}