The Shard of Glass, London SE1

I posted a photo of the Shard at dusk the other day. Pat commented that she’d like to see more pictures of this new addition to London’s skyline. At 1016ft (309.6m), it’s the tallest building in Western Europe.
I took these two photographs from Borough, London SE1, just by the tube station.
In the first, you can see the Shard behind the spire of St George the Martyr. Perspective makes the two buildings look almost the same height, but of course they are very different.

The Shard and St George the Martyr

Close by it used to be the Marshalsea, a debtors’ prison where Charles Dickens’ father spent time. The church is sometimes called little Dorrit’s church as the eponymous heroine of that Dickens’ novel sleeps the night there when she returns to the Marshalsea to late to get in.
In this second photo, you can see the Shard, St George’s and Guy’s Tower, the thirty something storey building of Guy’s Hospital.

The Shard, St George the Martyr and Guy’s Tower.

Thomas Guy, an eighteenth century bookseller, was a philanthropist who was the founder of the hopital. He is buried in the crypt of the pretty chapel and his statue stands in the courtyard of the old part of the hospital. But more of that in another post.

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