30th March: The Shard

On this date in 2012 The spire of the Shard London Bridge was put in place. So here are 10 facts about the Shard.

1. English Heritage unwittingly named the building (which was to be called London Bridge Tower) when they criticised the design, saying the building would be "a shard of glass through the heart of historic London".
2. It was designed by the Italian architect Renzo Piano. He was inspired by the London spires in paintings by the 18th-century Venetian artist Canaletto, and the masts of sailing ships. He designed it to look like a spire emerging from the river Thames.
3. The Shard is 309.6 metres (1,016 ft) high with 96 floors, the tallest building in London and in the European Union. At time of writing it is the 87th tallest building in the world.
4. Only 72 of the floors are habitable. Floors 73-95 are the spire. The 72nd floor is a viewing gallery, The View from The Shard, which, according to its website, is almost twice the height of any other viewing platform in the capital, and offers visitors unparalleled 360-degree views for up to 40 miles. It doesn't come cheap, though. An adult ticket is £25.95. There is, however, a bad weather guarantee - so if you book and it turns out to be a foggy day, you can return again for free.
5. In the rest of the building there are apartments, a hotel, restaurants, a healthcare clinic and offices. Companies with offices there include Gallup, Al Jazeera, Warwick Business School and IO Oil and Gas. The most recent addition is digital marketing agency Jellyfish who will be moving into the Shard in May 2016, occupying the 22nd floor.
6. The spire was put in place by a specially constructed crane, which was the tallest crane ever built in Britain. Before it was put in place in London, there was a test run in Yorkshire.
7. It almost wasn't built at all. In late 2007, uncertainty in the global financial markets sparked concerns about the viability of the Shard. However, a consortium of Qatari investors came to the rescue and put in £150 million to secure an 80% stake in the project. Today the State of Qatar owns 95% of The Shard with Sellar Property owning the remaining 5%.
8. The Shard has 11,000 panes of glass, with a total surface area of 56,000 square metres (600,000 sq ft). The panes are angled so that they reflect sunlight and the sky, so its appearance changes with the weather.
9. Its postal address is 32 London Bridge St, London SE1 9SG.
10. Like most tall buildings, The Shard has had its fair share of illegal climbers, base jumpers and trespassers. A group called the Place Hackers got in in December 2011 and took pictures of the view, which they posted on the internet. Base jumper Dan Witchalls is said to have jumped off The Shard four times. He filmed one of his jumps with a helmet-mounted camera. The highest jump was said to have been from a height of 850 feet (260 m). A legitimate event was on 3 September 2012 when a team of 40 people, including Prince Andrew, Duke of York, abseiled from the tower's 87th floor to to raise money for the Outward Bound Trust and the Royal Marines Charitable Trust Fund.