This was published 9 years ago
Shangri-La Hotel at the Shard review: Room with a gobsmacking view
By Keith Austin
You can see forever atop London's Shard.
It's about the view at the Shangri-La Hotel at the Shard. They could have easily called it that - The View - and no one would have batted an eye.
Or perhaps The Mouth Drops Open When You Exit The Elevator. Too long? Perhaps the local idiom might be better: The Gobsmacked.
Because you are, you know, gobsmacked. Sit in the plush armchairs in the 35th floor Shangri-La foyer, the ones by the coffee table piled high with paving slab copies of Vogue and Vanity Fair, and watch the newbies pile out of the lift.
There's a second to get used to the glare and then down goes the jaw. Look. At. That. View. The London Eye, St Paul's, the snake of the Thames, Tate Modern, Borough Market down below, the Millennium Bridge - and this is just one corner of the floor, a mere 124 metres above ground.
Of course, Renzo Piano, the Pritzker Prize-winning Italian architect, designed it that way. This is basically a skyscraping inner core surrounded by floor-to-ceiling windows to make the most of The View.
Even in the toilets things are arranged to make the most of the wonderful sprawl of London.
In the Ladies on the 35th floor, next to plush Ting restaurant, one of the cubicles takes in the view south, while in the Gents on the same floor, the urinals are positioned to take advantage of the magnificent western panorama.
This can cause problems at sunset as you watch that scarlet orb slip down over the horizon, mesmerised and unaware that someone else is busting to use the facilities. This is known locally as the Sunset Drip.
Despite the controversies over its existence - protests from some locals and newspaper columnists such as The Guardian's Simon Jenkins, who bemoaned that it spoiled the view of London from Primrose Hill - the Shard has become a favourite among the Londoners to whom I spoke.
It officially opened for business earlier this year, with the Shangri-La its first tenant - and the first five-star hotel south of the river.
It signed a 30-year lease and unveiled its 22-floor development in May. This is only the Malaysian hotel group's third European hotel, after Paris and Istanbul, and it only came to fruition after a 10-year search for a suitable location.
It was, it must be said, worth the wait. From the uber-friendly welcome on the ground floor to the expert ministrations of William Yarney, the knowledgeable and sociable supervisor in Gong, London's highest bar (184 metres), this is exactly what we in the southern hemisphere have come to expect of the Shangri-La group.
The decor is hushed and relaxed oriental elegance throughout, from the richness of the materials to the colour palettes - and there's even an Asian version of the otherwise terribly British afternoon tea.
An infinity pool - London's highest, of course - is being readied for the 52nd floor some time in August.
It's not all sweetness and light; there are the already well-publicised problems with the orientation of the windows in some of the rooms, for instance. Certainly from our room we could see into the chap's room to our left. He, wisely, kept his blinds down.
Being 44 floors up in the air might bring with it the expectation of some privacy, but knowing your neighbour has views both of the Gherkin office building and your gherkin is a little disconcerting. This will be addressed, they say, by judicious application of non-reflective glass and special curtains.
The rooms are luxuriously but not flashily furnished. This is deliberate and, again, harks back to The View, with which it is impossible to compete so why try?
Indeed, the most important piece of furnishing in our Iconic City View room, we discovered, were the excellent binoculars.
With these you can really be lord of all you survey. We took to carrying them everywhere in the hotel, even up to the popular Gong bar (you have to book to be sure of a table) one night.
Wembley Stadium, Alexandra Palace, Canary Wharf, Greenwich, the Thames Barrier and beyond were brought right into our room.
If I could allow myself one more small grumble it would be that, as a Londoner, I grew up with these places and would recognise them anywhere, but an overseas visitor would probably struggle. A skyline map depicting the main points of interest would be helpful.
Dinner in Ting (the name is a Chinese play on "living room") is a stylishly muted affair with the menu vying successfully with The View, even if the staff are a little unsure of the provenance of some of the food. The "British beef", we are told, comes from Canada, which is one hell of a detour.
A special mention must go to the Gong bar and the black and blue swizzle cocktail. As someone who believes that single malts should only ever be accompanied by just enough water to break the surface, I am persuaded to try it, against my better instincts, by William Yarney. I mean, look at the ingredients: Talisker, honey, lime, PX sherry and ... blue cheese.
It comes in a frosted copper jug and, despite what appear to be ingredients thrown together like rutting goats, it is delicious.
But it all comes back to The View. London is, at the best of times, a frantic glory, but a room high up in the Shard takes away the frenzy and displays this most capital of capitals to its best effect.
But wait until the sun goes down, after the Thames has spun to silver, and turn the lights out in your room to banish reflections. Then, in the dark and the silence, it is nothing short of magical.
The Shangri-La Hotel, at the Shard, London, 31 St Thomas Street, Southwark (above London Bridge station. Rooms from £450 ($812) a night, twin share VAT included). See shangri-la.com. The writer was a guest of Shangri-La Hotels.
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