20 Fenchurch Street, London.

Also known as the ‘Walkie-Talkie’ building and famous recently for melting cars and pavements when the sun shines. Above the office block on floor 35 is the Sky Garden. In the evenings it is a restaurant and bar but during the day the Sky Garden is open to the Public (10.00 to 18.00 or 11.00 to 21.00 on a weekend) and it’s FREE. A tourist attraction in London that’s FREE. Mind you, you do have to go on-line book a time slot for a ticket but it’s FREE. There is a separate entrance from the office block with the usual airport style security before you get to the lift which is very smooth and quick with only your ears popping to give any sense of moving. I had booked a time slot for sunset but unfortunately the outside balcony was closed due to ‘Inclement Weather’. It had been raining during the afternoon. Had to make do with shooting through several layers of dirty, rain speckled reinforced glass with the usual internal reflections as it was a bit difficult to get a tight light excluding fit at the end of the lens due to handrails and other obstacles in the way. Some stunning views from up there and unlike the Shard, which faces it from across the river and which costs £25.95 to go up, the Sky Garden is Free. In the order they were taken

Afterwards I had a bit of a wander around the area and into Leadenhall Market, which I’ve not been in before and Wow that’s impressive, and the Lloyds of London building amongst others. I didn’t stay long as it was knocking off time for the City of London workers and it was getting crowded so I’ll be back should the Night Tube ever get up and running and which I’ll be using for all night night shoots but the money grabbing unions have called another 3 strikes over the Night Tube.

Sony A7rII/Sony FE 24-70mm f4 ZA OSS Vario-Tessar Carl Zeiss T* & Sony FE16-35mm f4 ZA OSS Vario-Tessar T* Lens

Brian