The Shard

“Glass tooth, don't bite.”

The Shard is the big glass tooth sticking out of Southwark. Designed by Renzo Piano, this 95-storey pyramid is the UK's tallest building at 309.6 metres. It replaced an old office block, which honestly felt like a mercy. Construction finished in 2012, and now it’s 95 percent owned by Qatar. You can climb to the 72nd floor for a view that makes your legs wobble. It’s not just a building; it’s a statement. The glass facade catches the light, making it look like a frozen shard of ice. It’s mixed-use, so offices and hotels share the space. It’s a bit of a bull, but it’s the coolest thing in London. Take the lift, look out, and try not to drop your phone. If you do, it’s gone forever. It’s a modern marvel with a bit of swagger. Come up and see it for yourself.

Photo: Colin, CC BY-SA 4.0

Then Tom went looking for the oddest places around it.

Stop 2 · Five minutes' walk

Tower of London

“Ravens know the exits.”

The Tower of London can look like a castle that has swallowed a whole district and kept the keys. Behind its walls are royal rooms, prison stories, armour, jewels and ravens with a better address than most Londoners. Tom insists the birds know every secret passage. The Ravenmaster, wisely, has not confirmed this. William the Conqueror's great stone White Tower began the fortress that later kings and queens enlarged. It served as palace and prison, but also housed the Royal Mint, armouries and even a zoo. Today the Crown Jewels and the Yeoman Warders draw the crowds, while quieter corners reveal how many different lives have passed through these walls. The ravens are real; the tale that the kingdom would fall if they left belongs to legend. Keeping those two things apart only makes the place richer. A standard admission ticket covers the Crown Jewels, White Tower, Yeoman Warder tours and other public areas, according to the palace's visitor guide. Book for the day you want and check current hours, because the grounds take time to explore. Stone stairs, cobbles and narrow passages are part of a medieval fortress, so consult the access information if needed. Arriving early can give you more room around the busiest displays. Do not try to see the Tower as a single grim prison tale. Let the rooms, walls and river setting show you the changing uses of London's old castle. Tom's ravens can keep their secrets for another visit.

What the record says

Recorded as: World Heritage place.

From the Historic England (National Heritage List for England) record 1000092

Photo: [Duncan] from Nottingham, UK, CC BY 2.0

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Stop 3 · 5 minutes down the road

Dennis Severs' House

“Candles, not ghosts.”

At 18 Folgate Street in Spitalfields, Dennis Severs made an old house feel as if its occupants had stepped out just ahead of you. Tom says they have merely popped round for more candles. The family's identity is fiction; the house and its creator are gloriously real. Severs bought the derelict house in 1979 and arranged its rooms to follow an imaginary Huguenot family through changing times. The building dates from 1724, but the household story is his artistic invention, built from furniture, light, scents and telling little disturbances. His point was to make visitors notice, listen and imagine rather than read a parade of labels. The Spitalfields Trust took on the house in 1999 and continues to care for it. That distinction matters: this is a historic London building holding a deliberate work of theatre, not documented proof that the imagined family lived behind its door. Visits are ticketed, and the house offers silent daytime and other booked experiences. Check its own booking page for the available dates and choose the kind of visit you want. The rooms are dim, the floors uneven and the stairs steep; the operator says wheelchair access is unavailable. Photography is not permitted inside. Put the phone away and follow the small signs of a life supposedly interrupted: a clock, a chair, the trace of a meal. Let the street outside remind you that Spitalfields had real working families, even if this one was made up. Tom is looking for the candle buyer. Let him search. This strange house works best when you stop talking and let it tell its own tall tale.

What the record says

Recorded as: Museum.

From OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors) n2244751330

Photo: Richard Croft, CC BY-SA 2.0

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Stop 4 · A 5-minute spin away

St Bartholomew-The Great

“Stone keeps its secrets.”

St Bartholomew-the-Great waits behind Smithfield's old gatehouse with the splendid trick of making central London suddenly feel very far away. Its thick Norman arches and surviving choir belong to a priory founded in 1123 by Rahere, a courtier who chose a much longer career in local memory than most people manage. Step inside and the stone starts the conversation before Tom can. According to the church's own history, Rahere founded both the religious house and St Bartholomew's Hospital after serious illness and a vision. That vision is part of the founding account; the buildings and their long service are tangible facts. Augustinian canons lived and worshipped here for centuries. The dissolution of the monasteries broke up the priory in the sixteenth century, leaving the church smaller but still in use. The Tudor gatehouse marks the approach to a nave that once extended farther. Inside, the great arches give a sense of the lost medieval scale, while later work shows a church that kept adapting rather than being sealed under glass. This is still a parish church, with worship and visitors sharing its space. Take time to notice the change from busy Smithfield outside to the more measured rhythm within. I imagine Rahere's arches politely asking each new century to wipe its feet, then letting it in anyway. That is Tom giving masonry a voice; the survival is impressive enough without mine. Come through the gatehouse, look up into the old fabric, and let London's oldest parish church catch you unprepared.

What the record says

Recorded as: Heritage attraction.

From OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors) w31755876

Photo: sue hayton, CC BY-SA 2.0

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Stop 5 · Hop back in the car, 5 minutes

Hunterian Museum

“Tea holds me up.”

The Hunterian Museum at London's Royal College of Surgeons contains anatomical specimens that could leave Tom, for once, short of a cheeky remark. This is a place for curiosity with care: human bodies and medical practice sit behind many of the objects. The displays follow surgery's changing methods and the people who studied them. John Hunter, an eighteenth-century surgeon and anatomist, assembled a vast teaching collection through dissection, observation and experiments. The museum now uses surviving specimens, instruments, art and records to explore both what practitioners learned and the limits of their thinking. It also asks visitors to consider the people represented in collections of human remains. Look at an instrument beside an anatomical preparation, and ask what a surgeon could know from each. The story is about learning and treatment over centuries, but it also involves choices about consent and display that deserve a thoughtful visit. The Royal College of Surgeons lists the Hunterian Museum at 38–43 Lincoln's Inn Fields, open to public visitors Tuesday to Saturday. Entry is free and advance booking is recommended. Check the current exhibition and visitor guidance before going, particularly if you are visiting with children or are sensitive to human remains. Follow the chronological displays slowly; a single specimen can carry both a scientific insight and an individual history. The building is a museum today, not a working operating room for visitors. Tom says his own anatomy is held together with tea and insolence. The surgeons have better explanations of how bodies work. Come with questions and leave room for the people behind the specimens.

What the record says

Recorded as: Museum.

From OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors) n3349882188

Photo: StoneColdCrazy at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0

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The whole day on one map

See everything else around The Shard →

Over a million places across Ireland and Britain, all free. Explorer Tom has a story for nearly every one.