Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
round”, literally like a theatre, so that students (and members of high society) could view the
proceedings.
THE SHARD
32 London Bridge London Bridge 0844 499 7111,
theviewfromtheshard.com
.
Daily 9am-10pm.From
£25 online.
MAP
It's hard to justify the hubristic (Qatari-funded)
Shard
, London's - and the country's -
tallest building, which houses a mixture of flats, restaurants, at hotel and a viewing plat-
form. Even less justifiable are the ticket prices to reach the top floors of Renzo Piano's
1016ft-high, tapered, glass-clad skyscraper. Still, once you're there, if you can ignore the
New Age muzak, the views are sublime, making everything else in London look small, from
the unicycle of the London Eye to the tiny box that is St Paul's Cathedral, while the model
railway of London Bridge is played out below you.
LONDON BRIDGE EXPERIENCE
2-4 Tooley St London Bridge 0800 0434 666,
thelondonbridgeexperience.com
.Mon-Fri & Sun
10am-5pm, Sat 10am-6pm.From £18 online.
MAP
With the
London Dungeon
now in County Hall, Gothic horror fans should head instead to
this slightly more historically pertinent scarefest. First off, it's a theatrical trot through the
history of London Bridge, with guides in period garb hamming up the gory bits. Then, in
case you're not scared enough yet, in the
London Tombs
section (no under 11s), more act-
ors, dressed as zombies and murderers, leap out of the fog to frighten the wits out of you.
HMS BELFAST
The Queen's Walk London Bridge 020 7940 6300,
hmsbelfast.iwm.org.uk
.
Daily: March-Oct
10am-6pm; Nov-Feb 10am-5pm.£14.
MAP
An 11,550-ton
Royal Navy cruiser
, HMS
Belfast
saw action both in World War II and in
the Korean War, and has been permanently moored on the Thames since 1971. The most en-
joyable aspect of a visit is exploring the maze of cabins and scrambling up and down the
vertiginous ladders. If you want to know more about the ship's history, head for the Exhibi-
tion Flat in Zone 5; in the adjacent Life at Sea room, you can practise your Morse code and
knots and listen to accounts of naval life on board.
