Last chance to win tickets to The View from The Shard

Enter our competition and you could win tickets to the best view in London, if not the world, but you’ll have to hurry because the closing date is midday today (Thursday).

In celebration of  English Tourism Week, TravelMole and The View from The Shard have 50 pairs of tickets to give away to London’s newest, tallest visitor attraction.

To be in with a chance to stand (almost) on top of the Shard, just answer the following question:

What is the maximum height of The View from The Shard?

Send your answer by midday on Thursday March 21 by email to [email protected], marking your email ‘Shard Competition’.

Tickets can be used on March 27 and 28 from 09:00 to 12:00 or 18:00 to 20:30.

The View from The Shard opened to the public on February 1, offering visitors 40-mile views extending across the city and TravelMole’s associate editor Linsey McNeill was among the first to visit.

Standing at a lanky 1,061, the Shard was, briefly, the loftiest building in Europe – but sadly the title was pinched by Moscow’s new Mercury Tower which topped it at the back end of last year. The Shard is now only the tallest building in western Europe.

The Shard is a mixed purpose building combing a hotel at ground level with residential accommodation and a tourist attraction, The View from the Shard, the highlight of which is the deck on the 72^nd floor, at 800ft (244m), and it claims to be the only spot where you can see the whole of London. 

Certainly it’s a good place for tourists to start their visit to the capital, with all the main tourist attractions spread out below them. Tower Bridge, Big Ben, the London Eye, the Tower of London, even the Wembley arch and Hampstead Heath are easy to spot.

Interactive digital ‘Tell:scopes’ installed around the main viewing deck on level 69 help visitors to locate less obvious landmarks and provide alternative real-time, sunrise, sunset and night views of the city, plus information about the surroundings.

Tickets cost £24.95 for adults, £18.95 for children.  A trip on the London Eye will only set you back £17.28, but at 1,016-feet The View from the Shard is well over twice as high and you can stay as long as you like.

Located right at the mouth of London Bridge tube station, through which 70 million people pass every year, The View from the Shard it is expected to lure more visitors to Southwark, one of the poorest boroughs in London. The opening of the Shangri-La luxury hotel within the tower will be another boost to the area.

"Is it scary?" my colleague wanted to know. Actually it isn’t, probably because the viewing deck is surrounded by the pointed glass panes that give the Shard it’s name, it’s only open air above your head.

During my mid-morning visit, we watched the drizzle dry up as the sun appear over Hampstead Heath from where its rays swept across London, hitting the Shard and shining through the opening in the glass, bathing the city below in bright light. It really was magical.

A visit to the Shard is about more than the view, though. In the entrance gallery visitors will see over 140 famous Londoners pictured in tongue-in-cheek scenarios; the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge as the Pearly King and Queen, Kate Moss with King Henry VIII and Boris Johnson shining Ken Livingstone’s shoes.

Around the gallery, animated maps and video screens will illustrate the growth of London and reveal the context of the historic London Bridge location. A series of short films will give a glimpse of London’s diverse communities and famous streets.

A specially composed orchestral and choral soundtrack performed by the London Symphony Orchestra and The Joyful Company of Singers provide background music, and as the lifts travel upwards to The View from The Shard at six metres per second, video screens and mirrors create the effect of soaring through iconic ceilings and roofs of London; visitors shoot "shoot through"  the domes of St Paul’s, the Rubens ceiling in the Banqueting House in Whitehall  and the British Museum’s Great  Court glass roof.

Visitors transfer lifts at level 33, where they walk over a graffiti word map of London where they can test their knowledge of the capital with questions such as which heath is famous for pistol duels? Putney, of course.

At level 68, visitors can learn about cloud formation from graphics on the windows or just spend their cash in London’s highest shop, before heading up to the main viewing platform on level 69.

The entire attraction offers free wi-fi so everyone can immediately share their photos, with or without raindrops, on social media sites. As virtual bragging goes, it’s pretty good.

All winners shall be subject to the standard terms and conditions of entry for The View from The Shard which are available to view at http://www.theviewfromtheshard.com/#terms-and-conditions.