The year round, round the Shard

It's been a full year since my return from Mexico, and quite an extraordinary one. Lockups, lockdowns.....spring is arriving and with it, some hope that the plague that has impacted so many people and the restrictions that have affected all, may be receding.

Going round in time as we have, I decided to go round in place, seeing the London Bridge Tower from all angles. Now known as the Shard, it was completed in 2012. The tallest building in the UK and rising to 1,012 feet (310 metres), its pencil-like profile punches the skyline from all points of the compass.

It's nice to position it with other tall buildings, new and old. No. 1 is a view from Waterloo Bridge, including another nicknamed building, the Boomerang on the left, and the Art Deco Oxo Tower. In 2 it rises behind the Greek Revival tower of Trinity Church in Southwark. No. 3 is a view from the waterfront of the City, and 4 is from Tower Bridge, itself a monument of great appeal. No. 5 returns me to Leathermarket Gardens in Southwark, which I found last spring when the trees were in blossom, while 6 is downstream in Rotherhithe which used to be an important shipping quarter and now provides a pleasant amble along the Thames Path.

Yes, 2020/21 has been a most peculiar year but not all bad: I've discovered a lot about myself, and others........and London.Read more