When Renzo Piano’s tower for London Bridge was put forward, English Heritage objected that it would be “a shard of glass through the heart of historic London”. The objection gave the building its name. Since 2014 the Shangri-La hotel has occupied levels 34 to 52 of The Shard, and weddings are held on the first of those floors, in three private rooms whose windows look across the Thames to St Paul’s Cathedral, Tower Bridge and the Tower of London. The hotel is licensed for weddings and civil partnerships, so the vows, the dinner and the wedding night can all take place above London Bridge station.
A spire sketched on a menu
The building began over lunch. In the spring of 2000 the developer Irvine Sellar flew to Berlin to meet Piano, who turned over the restaurant’s menu and sketched a spire rising out of the Thames. Piano drew on the railway lines running beside the site, on the London spires painted by Canaletto in the 18th century and on the masts of sailing ships. At the time the plot was occupied by Southwark Towers, a 24 storey office block of 1975.
The design went to a public inquiry in the spring of 2003 and received planning consent that November. Building work began in March 2009, the tower was topped out in March 2012 and it was inaugurated that July. At 309.6 metres and 95 storeys, The Shard is the tallest building in the United Kingdom and in Western Europe. It is clad in some 11,000 panes of glass, set at angles to catch the sunlight and reflect the sky, so the tower looks different with the weather and the seasons.
A hotel that begins on the 34th floor
The tower is divided by height. Offices fill the lower floors, restaurants occupy levels 31 to 33, the hotel runs from level 34 to level 52, private apartments sit above it, and the public viewing gallery is at the top, on levels 68 to 72.
Shangri-La is a Hong Kong based hotel group founded by Robert Kuok, which opened its first hotel in Singapore in 1971 and takes its name from the mythical land of contentment in James Hilton’s 1933 novel Lost Horizon. Its London hotel was expected to open by the end of 2013 and finally opened on 6 May 2014. The 202 rooms and suites run from level 36 to level 51, and on level 52 are the Sky Pool, an infinity pool, and GONG, the cocktail bar. TING, the restaurant, cooks contemporary food with a South East Asian accent and serves afternoon tea.
Three rooms named for three virtues
Weddings take place on level 34, a floor of 400 square metres that holds three private rooms and the Sky Lounge. The rooms are named after the first three of Confucianism’s five constant virtues: Ren for benevolence, Li for propriety and Yi for righteousness. Each faces a different stretch of London.
Yi is the smallest, a room for up to 12 guests overlooking Tower Bridge and the Tower of London. Li takes up to 30, with London Bridge and St Paul’s Cathedral in its windows.
Ren, the largest private room in the hotel, looks along the river to the City of London. It seats 100 for the wedding breakfast and takes the same number for a reception. Civil ceremonies can be held for up to 110 guests, and for a standing celebration the event spaces take up to 140. Couples who want no other party on the floor can take the whole of level 34 for exclusive use, the three rooms and the Sky Lounge together.
Between the rooms, a grand staircase sweeps down past windows two storeys high. With glass on every side of the floor, the skyline sits behind the couple in the photographs whatever the time of day, and the views change from room to room: the dome of St Paul’s from Li, the towers of the City from Ren, the bascules of Tower Bridge from Yi.
A menu from the market below
Catering is in house, and the wedding menus come from the hotel’s own kitchens, which buy from the food markets nearby. Borough Market is about five minutes’ walk from the door.
The wedding breakfast follows a simple rule: the couple choose one starter, one main course and one dessert for the whole party, with one further option at each course for vegetarians, and final numbers go to the kitchen a week before the day. A sample menu runs from salmon tataki with heritage beetroot to rump of lamb with a shoulder croquette and fondant potato, and a fourth course can be added between the starter and the main. Kosher catering can be arranged.
The Bespoke Wedding Package brings together a Champagne reception with canapés and a seasonal three course meal, with a dedicated wedding planner, a consultation with the executive chef and a private tasting of the menu. Menus, room hire and exclusive use of the floor are priced for each celebration. For the evening, couples who want something local at the reception can draw on the food producers of Borough Market and the arches around Bermondsey Street.
The night upstairs
The bedrooms begin two floors above the wedding, so the end of the evening is a lift ride away. Every room has floor to ceiling windows, and bathrooms are in marble with heated floors. Seventeen of the 202 rooms are suites, among them the Shangri-La Suite, the Westminster, London and Southwark Suites and the Iconic Shard Suite, whose bath stands against the glass at around 180 metres. On the morning of the wedding the suites double as rooms for getting ready.
The couple’s first night is part of the arrangement: a complimentary Deluxe City View Room with breakfast for two, and preferential rates for guests, both available when minimum booking requirements are met. On level 52 the Sky Pool has a sauna facing the skyline beside it, and the spa offers ELEMIS treatments.
Above London’s oldest railway terminus
The entrance is at 31 St Thomas Street, beside London Bridge station. The London and Greenwich Railway opened the station on 14 December 1836, and it is the oldest railway terminus in London still in use. Building The Shard gave the station a new entrance and a new roof over its concourse, and the rebuilt station was officially reopened in 2018.
For guests that means an easy arrival. The Jubilee and Northern lines stop at London Bridge, and Thameslink trains run directly to Gatwick, about 37 minutes away. London City Airport is about 25 minutes by car and Heathrow about an hour, and the hotel can send a car to meet guests at the London airports. Southwark Cathedral, Tate Modern and Shakespeare’s Globe are all within a short walk, and the City is one bridge away.
Twelve, thirty or a hundred
Shangri-La The Shard keeps the whole wedding inside one tower: the ceremony and dinner on level 34, the rooms for the night above, and a station at the foot of the building. The decision that shapes the rest of the day is the room, because each one sets both the number of guests and the view behind the vows: Yi and Tower Bridge for up to 12, Li and St Paul’s for up to 30, Ren and the City for up to 100 at dinner, or the whole floor for exclusive use.
Check your date with Shangri-La The Shard, London, read the full venue profile, see more wedding venues in London and the legal requirements for marrying in London, or compare Trinity House on Tower Hill and The Londoner.
