LEARNING LONDON EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMME

FACT SHEETS 1

The Shard Story – Developing The Shard

The idea for The Shard was the brainchild of property developer, Irvine Sellar

Southwark Towers, a 1970s office block, had been purchased as an investment

It made poor use of a good site which had excellent transport links

In 1999, a proposal for a high building on the site was put forward

Opposition came from English Heritage and Historical Royal Palaces

Support came from the Mayor of London and the local community in Southwark

Originally the building was planned to be 400 metres high, but the height was reduced following 9/11

Planning consent was obtained in November 2003

The architect, Renzo Piano, was appointed in

2000 – he had been suggested to Sellar by a colleague who admired his work

Not known for designing tall buildings, Renzo Piano saw the sense of a high-rise development at London Bridge

The idea was to create a vertical city, a place where people live, work and enjoy themselves

The ‘roads’ in this city are the building’s banks of lifts and escalators

Having public access was seen as a vital component of the project, but it is highly unusual for a tall building in London

Investment in the project came from the Sellar Property Group and the State of Qatar

The Shard is the centrepiece of London Bridge Quarter – a £2bn development to regenerate and rejuvenate the area adjacent to London Bridge Station

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The Shard Story – Designing The Shard

The architect of The Shard is Renzo Piano, one of the most innovative architects in the world today

Piano achieved international acclaim when, in partnership with Richard Rogers, he designed the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris in the 1970s

The Renzo Piano Building Workshop was established in 1981 and notable projects include The New York Times Building in New York, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston and Central St Giles in London

Irvine Sellar met Renzo Piano for the first time in 2000 in a restaurant in Berlin to discuss the idea of a tall building at London Bridge

Piano sketched his initial design thoughts on the back of a napkin in the restaurant – that initial sketch bears a remarkable resemblance to the finished building

Piano wrote on the sketch ‘To Irvine from Renzo, May 2000 Berlin’

Piano’s inspiration for the design of The Shard comes from the sailing masts of the ships that docked in the river Thames and the steeples of Sir Christopher Wren’s churches in the City of London

Sitting on the banks of the Thames, Piano designed his building to be a kaleidoscope that responds to changeable London weather, to light and shade – like a mirror, reflecting the city

Realising the vision of ‘a shard of glass’ meant the design of the façade was critical, with large sheets of floor-to-ceiling glazing providing unobstructed views of London

Piano envisaged a building that would respond to the changeable English climate

The form of the tower itself is configured with views in mind, but equally to optimize climatic conditions for its users

The mix of uses within The Shard meant that office workers, hotel guests and diners, residents of the apartments, and the public visiting The View from The Shard all had to have their own points of entry to the building, with no fewer than 44 lifts to whisk them to their required levels

The top of the building is a spectacular glass and steel spire

The dramatic design forms a new London landmark

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The Shard Story – Constructing The Shard

The Shard took three years to build, with up to 1,500 people working on its construction

Nothing about the project was simple: the team had to work on a constricted site, hemmed in by streets and buildings, including a major hospital, and overlapping one of London’s busiest railway stations

The foundations began with 120 piles extending 54 metres (177 feet) deep into the ground

Each of these had to bear a weight of 2800 tonnes (3086 US tons) as the first 21 storeys of the tower were constructed around a  central core

The Shard has three basement levels used for services and vehicle access, the lowest extending more than 13 metres (42 feet) below ground level

Excavating the basements was a tricky operation, given the proximity of the Thames, so a massive retaining wall was built to enclose the site and provide a safe, dry base for the tower

A massive concrete raft was constructed at the lowest basement level, which provided the structural underpinning for construction of the upper levels

The 4-metre (13-foot) thick basement raft was an operation of heroic proportions: it was probably the largest concrete pour ever carried out in Britain

In a space of 36 hours, 700 truckloads of concrete were delivered in a military-style operation

The core of The Shard was built ‘top down’ – the strategy used to construct the basements allowed the concrete core of the building to be raised simultaneously

A rig on top of the core was used to pour concrete as the structure rose

On top of the core a crane was installed, steadily rising as the core itself grew

Four tower cranes were installed to deliver steelwork.

In the final stages of construction, the site boasted the tallest tower crane in Europe

The Shard is clad with more than 11,000 individual glass panels, assembled in prefabricated sections to form a unitised façade system

Assembled in a factory in Holland, the glass panels incorporate two layers of glass, blinds and the motors powering them

On site, they were raised by lift and installed floor by floor – each panel typically took 15 minutes to install

The Spire contains some 1,300 individual parts Assembling it at the summit of the tower was

always a challenge A dry run at the steel-fabricator’s works in

Yorkshire was followed by the Spire being dismantled and transported to the site and assembled in sections

These were lifted into place and fixed into position with the aid of a team of expert steel erectors

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The Shard Story – Inside The Shard

The Shard contains a mix of uses and is a vertical city of offices, hotel and restaurants, apartments and public viewing galleries

Levels 2-28 are offices Entered via a double-height lobby clad in white,

hand-chiselled Carrara marble

Levels 31-33 have some of the highest restaurants in London

Aqua Shard on Level 31 serves innovative contemporary British cuisine and features a three-storey high atrium bar

Oblix on Level 32 features an aged cocktail library and live music

Hutong on Level 33 serves Chinese cuisine and features traditional Chinese decor and hand-carved ‘Moon Gates’

Level 34-52 is the Shangri-La Hotel, with 202 guestrooms and its own restaurant

The spa and infinity pool is on Level 52

Level 53-65 are exclusive residences with unparalleled views over London

The penthouse on Levels 64 and 65 is rumoured to have seven bedrooms

The View from The Shard occupies Levels 68-72 and offers the highest viewing gallery in London

The building is crowned by the dramatic steel and glass spire, which occupies Levels 75-95

Travel up this vertical city is via the 44 lifts, some of which are double-decker, and the 306 flights of stairs

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Fast Facts – The View from The Shard

The View from The Shard sits 244 metres (800 feet) above London, almost twice as high as any other view in the city

Double-decker elevators travel at speeds of 6 metres a second

The lifts have kaleidoscope ceilings, which change as you ascend and descend to The View

The View has 360 degree uninterrupted viewsfor up to 40 miles

It is possible to see Windsor Castle on a clear day

The View is a day and night experience, open from 10am - 10pm (in summer)

Guests can stay as long as they like, taking time to appreciate the city from this unique perspective

Iconic London landmarks are laid out before you, including:

to the EAST: Olympic Stadium, Tower Bridge and Canary Wharf

to the WEST: Big Ben and the Houses of

Parliament, Buckingham Palace and the BT Tower to the SOUTH: Battersea Power Station, the

Imperial War Museum, Crystal Palace and The Oval cricket ground

to the NORTH: St Paul’s Cathedral, the Tower of London, Alexandra Palace and the Monument

Level 72, the highest public level, allows people to stand in the open, exposed to the elements and the sounds of the city beneath, and look up to the shards of glass that form the top of the remarkable building

The Tell:scopes on Level 69 are state-of-the-art interactive telescopes with unique views of London

London can be viewed in real-time, by day, by night, at dusk and going back through the centuries

One Tell:scope also provides a view of London in the future, taking account of planned building work

The View from The Shard has the highest toilets in London with the Loo with a View on Level 68

On average, the Loo with a View gets through 700 rolls of toilet paper a month

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Fast Facts – The Shard

The Shard is 309.6 metres tall (1,016 feet) and is the tallest building in the European Union

Level 72 is the highest floor the public can go to

The highest floor you can stand on (only open to maintenance staff) is 87 and the highest piece of glass is officially the 95th floor

The Shard was originally named ‘The London Bridge Tower’

Among the buildings Renzo Piano has designed are The New York Times Building in New York, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston and Central St Giles in London

The developer was The Sellar Property Group

The Shard’s principal contractor was Mace who worked in conjunction with WSP (engineers) and Severfield Reeve Structures (steel)

More than 900 consultants and construction workers were on site everyday

Builders worked 24 hours a day six days a week to raise the tower at a rate of 390cm an hour at its peak

The total piles supporting the building would measure 13.7km if laid end to end

The earth and rubble removed was 65,000 cubic metres

The tower is made up of 11,836 tonnes of steel

The volume of concrete used was 54,000 cubic metres, equivalent to 22 Olympic swimming pools

The Shard has an equivalent floor space of 31.4 acres

Construction cost £400m

The tower’s external surface is the size of eight football fields

11,000 glass panels were cut by a specialist factory in Holland – no two panes are identical which makes the building shimmer with 56,000 square metres of glass

44 lifts have been installed and 306 flights of stairs

Levels 1-26 are offices

Levels 31-33 house three different restaurants with at least two separate bars

The Shangri La Hotel is on Levels 34 and 52, and has 202 guestrooms and suites with enclosed balconies plus a spa.

There are 10 luxury apartments on Levels 53–65 – the penthouse takes up the whole of Levels 64 and 65

FACT SHEETS

LEARNING LONDON EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMME 7

Fast Facts – The Shard Weather

Oscar Wilde said “England has four seasons. But do we have to have them in one day!”

It rains when warm moist air cools and condensation occurs

Warm air can hold more water than cool air, so when the warmer air is cooled the moisture condenses to liquid – and it rains

There are different types of rain Frontal rain occurs when a warm air mass

meets a cold air mass Orographic rain is rainfall produced as a result

of clouds formed from the topography, or shape, of the land

Convective rain is produced by convective cloud, formed when the ground warms up, causing moisture in the ground to evaporate and rise

Clouds are made of tiny drops of water or ice crystals that settle on dust particles in the atmosphere

Snow is formed when temperatures are low and there is moisture, in the form of tiny ice crystals, in the atmosphere

When these tiny ice crystals collide they stick together in clouds to become snowflakes

If enough ice crystals stick together, they become heavy enough to fall to the ground

The snowiest winter of the 20th century in the UK was 1947 – between 22 January and 17 March

snow fell every day somewhere in the country

Wind is caused by differences in atmospheric pressure, the rising and sinking of air in the atmosphere

Window cleaners at The Shard have to stop working when the wind exceeds 25 mph

In 1953, 58 people died on Canvey Island, Essex when the North Sea flooded – this tragic event ultimately led to the creation of the Thames Barrier

The official definition of fog is a visibility of less than 1,000 metres

A London Particular or Pea-souper was the thick fog or smog that used to cover London

Caused by coal smoke from millions of chimneys, the Clean Air Act in 1956 banned the use of coal for domestic fires in urban areas and drastically reduced the number of deaths from respiratory problems

In May 2014, The Shard was hit by a bolt of lightning during a sudden storm – neither the building nor its occupants were affected due to the lightning protection system installed during construction

London generates its own microclimate, known as the Urban Heat Island (UHI), caused by the urban landscape where roads, buildings and pavements absorb and trap heat

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LEARNING LONDON EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMME 8

Fast Facts – Thames Top 20

The Thames is 215 miles/346km long and runs from its source near Cirencester in Gloucestershire to the Thames Estuary near Southend-on-Sea

The first bridge over the Thames was built by the Romans in the 1st century – now there are 104 bridges along its length

The Thames is tidal from the sea to Teddington Lock – the tidal stretch of the river is known as The Tideway

The non-tidal part, from its source to Teddington, is 147 miles/237km long and falls approximately 342 feet/104.2 metres

There are 45 locks on the non-tidal river Thames

There is a 23 feet/7 metre difference between low and high tide at London Bridge

The Thames is 870 feet/265 metres wide at London Bridge

Frost fairs used to be held on the Thames as it used to freeze over – the last frost fair was held in 1814

The Thames has featured in many literary works, including Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K Jerome, The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame, Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll and Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

The river Thames may take its name from the Sanskrit Tamas meaning “dark” as its waters are often dark and cloudy; another school of thought is that it is named after the Roman Tam meaning “wide” and Isis meaning water

In Oxford the Thames is known as the river Isis

The Thames Path follows the river for 296km

(184 miles) from its source, making it the longest riverside walk in Europe

Magna Carta was ‘signed’ by King John on the banks of the Thames at Runnymede in June 1215 (in reality he put his seal on the document)

The “Doggett’s Coat and Badge” is the oldest continuously run single sculling race in the world, founded by Thomas Doggett in 1715 to celebrate the accession of the House of Hanover (George I) to the throne of England. The race takes place between London Bridge and Cadogan Pier, Chelsea and is 4 miles 5 furlongs (7,400m) long

Over 30 million years ago, the Thames was a tributary of the river Rhine, as Britain was not yet an island

The RNLI’s Tower Lifeboat Station, now based near Somerset House (it used to be by the Tower), is the busiest lifeboat station in the country, launching over 500 times a year

The Thames Police (now part of the Metropolitan Police and called the Marine Police Unit) were formed in 1798, making them the first policing body in the country

The Thames contains seawater and freshwater so is home to a variety of fish and marine life, including brown trout, perch, pike, flounder and eels

London Bridge once had a public toilet (in the medieval era) that showered its contents directly into the river below!

The Great Stink of 1858, when the Thames was heavily polluted, resulted in the creation of the sewer system which in turn led to the narrowing of the Thames by reclaiming land to build the embankments

FACT SHEETS

LEARNING LONDON EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMME 9A

Thames Timeline – A Brief History of the River Thames

FACT SHEETS

AD47The Romans sail up the river and found

Londinium on its banks

1014London Bridge is pulled down by King Olaf of

Norway to help his ally King Aethelred defeat the Danes

1209

The first stone London Bridge completed, built by Peter de Colechurch. It remains the only bridge

crossing the Thames in London until 1750

1305The first head, that of William Wallace is

displayed on London Bridge

1620The Mayflower sets sail from Rotherhithe taking

the ‘Pilgrim Fathers’ to America

1701

Pirate Captain Kidd’s body is displayed at Execution Dock, Wapping for the wash of three tides

1798Thames Police are founded

1st century ADThe Romans build the first wooden bridge over the Thames shortly after they found Londinium

1150First recorded occasion of the Thames freezing over

1275The first Custom House is established to collect import and export duties from ships

1422The Lord Mayor’s Procession takes place on the river for the first time. It would move back onto dry land in 1857

1666Londoners take to boats to flee from the Great Fire of London

1750Westminster Bridge is built, becoming only the second bridge over the Thames in central London since Roman times

1802West India Docks open – the first enclosed docks built to provide security for cargoes and to relieve overcrowding in the Pool of London

LEARNING LONDON EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMME 9B

Thames Timeline – A Brief History of the River Thames

FACT SHEETS

1806Admiral Lord Nelson lies in state in the Painted

Hall in Greenwich, before being taken by boat for his funeral in St Paul’s Cathedral

1829The first Oxford and Cambridge University boat race

takes place – it becomes an annual event in 1856

1858The “Great Stink” – when the stench from the river

Thames becomes unbearable and leads to the building of London’s sewer system by

Sir Joseph Bazalgette

1894Tower Bridge opens. A ‘bascule’ bridge that

opens to let ships pass

1951The Festival of Britain takes place on the South

Bank as Britain gets back on its feet after World War II

1988Building of Canary Wharf begins on the

old Docklands

1814The last Frost Fair is held on the Thames

1843The Thames Tunnel, the first tunnel in the world to be built under a river, opens for pedestrians

1858The SS Great Eastern, Brunel’s huge sailing steamship, is launched from the shipyard at Millwall

1940 / 1941London’s docks are heavily bombed during the Blitz. 7th September 1940 becomes known as ‘Black Saturday’ as 430 people die and 1,600 are seriously wounded in the bombing

1982The Thames Barrier becomes operational to protect London from flooding

2000The Millennium Bridge opens and earns its nickname of ‘the wobbly bridge’ due to the unexpected sway of this suspension bridge

LEARNING LONDON EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMME 10A

London’s Timeline – A Brief History of London

FACT SHEETS

AD47Londinium founded on the banks of the river

Thames, following the Roman invasion by Claudius in AD43

AD180The Romans build a wall around the city, parts of

which can still be seen today

AD604First known church on the site of St Paul’s

Cathedral is founded by Bishop Mellitus in AD604

1065Edward the Confessor builds a palace and abbey

at Westminster. He becomes the first king to be buried in Westminster Abbey

1078Construction starts on the White Tower

(Tower of London)

1348The Black Death sweeps across Europe

and half of London’s population die (approx. 40,000 people)

AD61Boudicca, Queen of the Iceni, burns Londinium down, but the Romans rebuild a greater city

AD410Londinium grows and flourishes, but the Romans withdraw and Londinium is abandoned

AD886Alfred the Great re-establishes London back inside the walls of the old Roman city

1066William, Duke of Normandy, invades and defeats King Harold at the Battle of Hastings. William I is crowned in Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day

1209The first stone London Bridge, built by Peter de Colechurch. It remains the only bridge crossing the Thames in London until 1750

1381The Peasants Revolt, led by Wat Tyler, sees riots in London and a confrontation with Richard II at Smithfield

LEARNING LONDON EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMME 10B

London’s Timeline – A Brief History of London

FACT SHEETS

1397Richard “Dick” Whittington becomes Lord Mayor

of London, a post he will hold four times

1571The first Royal Exchange is opened by Elizabeth I

1649Charles I is beheaded at Banqueting House

in Whitehall during the Civil War and England becomes a Commonwealth

166570,000 Londoners die during the Great Plague

1694Bank of England is founded to provide

funds for the king

1817Robert Peel establishes the first police force

in London. The Metropolitan Police will be established in 1829

1837Queen Victoria becomes the first monarch

to live in Buckingham Palace. She goes on to reign for over 64 years

1476William Caxton’s printing press is established at Westminster Abbey

1605Guy Fawkes fails to blow up James I and Parliament in what becomes known as the Gunpowder Plot

1660Following the death of the Lord Protector, Oliver Cromwell, the monarchy is restored and Charles II takes the throne

1666The Great Fire of London breaks out in a baker’s shop in Pudding Lane on the night of Sunday 2nd September. Two thirds of London burns down

173210 Downing Street becomes the official residence of the Prime Minister

1834The Houses of Parliament burn down. All that remains is Westminster Hall and the Jewel Tower

1858The “Great Stink” – when the stench from the

river Thames becomes unbearable and leads to the building of London’s sewer system by

Sir Joseph Bazalgette

1888Londoners are terrorised by Jack the Ripper,

who murders and mutilates at least six victims. He is never caught

1922The BBC transmits its first radio broadcast

from London. Daily transmissions follow from a transmitter on the roof of Selfridge’s

1951The Festival of Britain takes place on the South Bank

as Britain gets back on its feet after World War II

2012London celebrates Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond

Jubilee and hosts the Olympic Games for the third time

1851The Great Exhibition takes place in Hyde Park. The brainchild of Prince Albert and Henry Cole is housed in the Crystal Palace

1863The Great Metropolitan Railway opens and London’s Underground is born (the world’s first underground railway)

1915Zeppelins (airships) appear over London and drop the first bombs during World War I

1940 / 1941London is devastated during the bombing of the Blitz

1988Building of Canary Wharf begins on the old Docklands

LEARNING LONDON EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMME 10C

London’s Timeline – A Brief History of London

FACT SHEETS