Just before Christmas last year I went to visit Horizon 22 to see some of London's beautiful skyscrapers. Horizon 22 is the tallest free viewing platform in Europe, and is in my favorite city London! The building is located at 22 Bishopsgate, has 62 floors, is 278m tall and is the 2nd tallest building in the UK. Entrance is free (in case you missed that), you can pre book from their website, or try to walk in on the day. That's what I did.
London skyscrapers
Horizon 22 is located in the City of London, the heart of London's traditional business, finance and legal district. This part of central London is very close to my heart as I used to work here for many years. The City is small, just over one square mile, and dates back to the Roman times. Today we're going to look at the London skyscrapers from up in the air, I'll show you some iconic buildings and tell you their nicknames.
First impressions
The lift takes visitors straight up to the 59th floor. My first sight of the view took my breath away, I hadn't seen it like that for a long long time. I was standing 250m above ground on the highest free viewing platform in UK and Europe!!! The actual viewing gallery is one floor down on the 58th floor. I went at Christmas time, and it was lovely to see a massive Christmas tree be the cafe. The rest of the floor was a big open space with full length windows offering unobstructed 300 degree views of London.
East
Let's start from the left side of the viewing platform, ie the east. The River Thames is outside passing underneath the Tower Bridge on the right hand side of the photo. The bridge is one of the most iconic images of London. The Thames snakes east, go past Canary Wharf, the cluster of tall buildings on the left hand side. That's the new financial district developed in the late 80s, a lot of the financial institutions are located there. At the bottom of the photo, you'll see a thin rectangle top building. That's called the Cheesegrater. Think of the actual object and you'll get an idea of what this building looks like at ground level. I couldn't get a better photo of the it as it was too near to me.
By the Thames
Moving to directly in front of the Thames. The tall building at the back is The Shard. It's the tallest building in UK and is so-called as it's like a shard of glass. You need to pay to access the viewing gallery at the top of the building. The building with a white exterior and sandwiched between The Shard and Horizon 22 is the Walkie Talkie.
The Walkie Talkie also has a free public viewing gallery, it's on the top level. I went there many years ago. It used to be the highest free viewing gallery in London before Horizon 22. Now they call themselves the highest public garden in London because it has lots of indoor plants. The bridge on the right of The Shard and Walkie Talkie is the London Bridge. Many people think the Tower Bridge is London Bridge because of its iconic towers and drawbridge. Sorry to disappoint you, London Bridge is just a plain old bridge.
The City of London
Moving a little further west, this is the The City. On the bottom left of the photo is a busy junction, that's called the Bank Junction. Nine streets converge here and extend out to the City. The building at the bottom with two main streets on either side is the Royal Exchange and dates back to 1566. The building to its right with a courtyard in the middle is The Bank of England. That's UK's central bank and has been on this site since 1734. Our country's gold vault is here, and holds the second largest deposit of gold, after the New York Federal Reserve. There's a Bank of England museum here. In all my years working in the area, I never thought to go. It was just a stone's throw away from me. Now I must find a chance to go sometime. It's free, I like that, and I might get to see some gold 😊
The other building I want to point out is St Paul's Cathedral, that's the building in the centre of the photo with a dome.
Here's a closer view, St Paul's is on the left now. This area is the dearest to my heart. I worked across from St Paul's for many years, walking by many of these buildings all the time. This is the first time I've seen them from up in the air. They look familiar yet different, like an old childhood friend you haven't seen for many years.
I know these are just blocks of concrete to you all, the same concrete that you will see in any big cities around the world and won't mean anything to you. For me, this was a pretty big part of my working life. It gave me the experience of working in one of the most vibrant and busy cities in the world, opened my eyes to both the good and bad of a major global corporation, gave me financial stability, and meet some pretty good people. All that has gone now, not only because I no longer work there, but the actual building I worked in has been torn down and redeveloped into another flashy new office block. London is ever changing city, but not as fast pace like others like in Asia. It's a gradual change, little by little so it never changes beyond recognition. That's what I love about London.
Enough of the sentiments. It's time to leave.
Back to ground level and there are more skyscrapers. It's interesting looking up to them now, instead of down.
By the way, I got one more building for you. Here's the Gherkin. I would have called it the Bullet, but I that would be too controversial. What's your favorite building in London? Either from this visit or somewhere else you've been before. Let me know in the comments.
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