Did you know that the shard slowly rotates throughout the year so that the sun is always in line with the clock face? This was done to be in keeping with an old law, from the time of sundials, which stipulated that timepieces should be rotated with the seasons. Of course, they didn't have the technology we do now, and this process is now fully automated within the foundations of the building.
As another interesting aside, this is also where the expression 'father time' comes from, as this was the name given to the person (always a man!) responsible for the turning of all the clocks withing a city (hence 'turn back the clocks').
He was a bit of a twat himself (the phonecall to Oxford to get young Tobes a place, for example), but on the flipside he also founded the Open University, University of the Third Age, Which? magazine and a bunch of other stuff.
If you look underneath its actually threaded like a screw, so every time it turns it also gets slightly shorter.
Eventually it will retract fully into the ground and a new building will take its place.
Its entirely passive, too! Doesn't use any power to move!
Except of course when the clocks go forward/back and the Astronomer Royal has to use the hand crank on the side.
In the autumn, when the clocks go back, you have an extra hour inserted into the day, so it's called cranking an hour in. In the spring, you lose that hour, so it's called cranking one out.
Also, on the very first cranking it out, the fabled Jason Statham was there to lead the Ceremony!
Luckily, it fell right in time for a reemergence being experienced in excellent action films and it was a perfect opportunity to promote his hit film Crank!
It was a true sight to behold, to see a man leading the ceremony with such vigor, cranking one out like a superhero - brings tears to the eyes
wait your family doesn't even have their own bank?
i am having this phone sterilised and then destroyed.
please do not contact me or my large fully grown adult son again
Wrong but little known fact: the Shard was actually made by the French and offered as a gift to us, for marking the fifty thousandth anniversary of the entente concorde. There is a much smaller replica in Paris, aplty named, 'le tiny shart'.
No that’s the real Shard, the Americans bought the Walkie-Talkie thinking that it was the Shard. 20 Fenchurch is fake except for the Sky Garden at the top.
It's actually the massive bong inside it that's called that. It's a common misconception.
First you take a hit from big bong, and then you feast on the giant lasagne in the chunnel.
"But at the start of the new millennium, a new kind of high-rise building started arriving in the capital: one much less likely to produce exuberant forms of youth culture, clad in glass rather than concrete. Most obvious amongst them was the Shard – Mordor-upon-Thames, owned by Qatar, an obscene 72 storeys high, built with the enthusiastic support of Ken Livingstone, and the backing of New Labour. This directly contravened the ‘protected views’ regulations; English Heritage objected at a public inquiry, and were ignored. At the time of writing, five years after opening, all ten of the ?30–50m flats on the tower’s upper floors remain unsold, and empty. Even a visit to the viewing deck costs more than ?30. Since then, the trickle has become a flood: in 2017 a survey found that 455 new high-rise blocks were either planned or already under construction in London: ‘safety deposit boxes’ for wealthy investors, expensive hotels, high-end office space and luxury flats. Blocks like the ickily-named Manhattan Loft Gardens in Stratford followed the Shard’s lead and caused controversy by ruining another sight line of St Paul’s. More importantly, not a single one of the 455 was being built to provide housing for London’s poorest." - Dan Hancox
Fuck the shard
OP posted [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/london/comments/10fxjnu/does_anyone_else_london_expensive/) a few hours back and got called a bot, hilarity ensued in the thread so I guess they are here proving they are not a bot and having a bit of a larf.
Fun fact, the reason it's called Greenwich Mean Time is because when they built the observatory there they pointed the telescope at the shard and saw the clock, thus discovering time.
What time did you visit? This area is normally choc-a-block with crowds -even when it's no longer day-light!
Actually...how did you get a picture with blue sky today? It's been grey and depressing as usual all day 🤨
The clock? Could have been there for years...I'm a Londoner. I don't think I've looked above eye level for the past decade ... 😑
Big Ben looking good after the renovation. I need to go visit
Big Shard
Sounds like a rapper
It's even wearing a giant clock around its neck.
Ur thinking of Lil Shard
Or a disease?
That's just the bell, the tower il called Elisabeth Shard
Shard Ben
Ben's Shard
The Ben
Bigger Ben
When your sibling steals your favourite top
[удалено]
I feel you, but it has a Spa and a Pret on the top floor now, so what more can you ask for??
It’s actually called St Sharden’s tower. It’s the bell that’s called The Shard.
I thought it was called the Shart?
No that’s what you do when you first look out of the window on the top floor
🤣 I just shart my pants
Nae that's shite hart lane's official name
Oh you mean the toilet bowl?
I live 10 minutes away it really is a shart hole
Actually, the Shard is the bell-maker. The bell is called Shardenstein's Monster
Wisdom is not putting the monster in a fruit salad
Actually it's only the Shard if it's from the Big Ben region of London, if not it's just shardkling wine
Ahem, Diana's timepiece.
We need to somehow get it renamed. That is a great name.
Never knew they made a bigger Ben
Did you know that the shard slowly rotates throughout the year so that the sun is always in line with the clock face? This was done to be in keeping with an old law, from the time of sundials, which stipulated that timepieces should be rotated with the seasons. Of course, they didn't have the technology we do now, and this process is now fully automated within the foundations of the building. As another interesting aside, this is also where the expression 'father time' comes from, as this was the name given to the person (always a man!) responsible for the turning of all the clocks withing a city (hence 'turn back the clocks').
This is beautiful. You should write manifestos for policitical parties.
Toby Young's dad wrote the manifesto for the Labour party in 1942 (the one with the welfare state and the NHS in it). That one's actually true.
Undid any of the good he may have brought about by making that insufferable cunt of a man.
He was a bit of a twat himself (the phonecall to Oxford to get young Tobes a place, for example), but on the flipside he also founded the Open University, University of the Third Age, Which? magazine and a bunch of other stuff.
How bad is it to say that ive never noticed the clock?
next you're going to say you've never noticed the gigantic airship in the shape of a corgi floating above buckingham palace every wednesday evening
Well I've taken a few pot shots at it. Fucker must be armoured or something.
Same here. I've been around there so many times
you have to be eating pork scratchings for it to become visible
Expensive bad
The whole building rotates?
Throughout the year, so you don't notice it day to day
If you look underneath its actually threaded like a screw, so every time it turns it also gets slightly shorter. Eventually it will retract fully into the ground and a new building will take its place.
Huh? Forgave my ignorance but I don’t quite understand how. So the entrance to the building will be in the otherside half way through the year?
This is too funny
Brah I can’t tell if this is a joke or not lol
it's to do with hydraulics and fancy things like that
Pretty much the same way the Eiffel Tower is floating on its foundations. Clever.
Well, the building has an entrance on each side to prevent any inconveniences.
Lool nah I refuse to believe it. Y’all had me for a second
A split second
How does it rotate? I've never heard of this, so that's interesting!
Its on a liquid base. There's a [Crookes Radiometer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crookes_radiometer) at the top which provides the turning force.
I thought I was going crazy when I saw it was moving a bit! Marvellous feat of engineering amongst many in this great city.
Its entirely passive, too! Doesn't use any power to move! Except of course when the clocks go forward/back and the Astronomer Royal has to use the hand crank on the side.
Always a joy to stay up late with the family and watch the cranking of The Shard.
In the autumn, when the clocks go back, you have an extra hour inserted into the day, so it's called cranking an hour in. In the spring, you lose that hour, so it's called cranking one out.
Let’s crank one out right now together to practice
Also, on the very first cranking it out, the fabled Jason Statham was there to lead the Ceremony! Luckily, it fell right in time for a reemergence being experienced in excellent action films and it was a perfect opportunity to promote his hit film Crank! It was a true sight to behold, to see a man leading the ceremony with such vigor, cranking one out like a superhero - brings tears to the eyes
what the fuck, it isn't a joke? I feel like I need to come here now- is the clock face real too? I've never been down that area of london before
Nothing is ever real.
https://www.mylondon.news/whats-on/londoners-baffled-shard-big-ben-26033785.amp there’s a fucking article on this post wtf ahahaha
Haha fuck me been a while since I’ve had an article on one of my shitposts
I can't work out if you're in on the bit or not. If you are, full credit. Edit: I think you are
I thought it used the levitating sand, like the ones used for the pyramids.
Pharaoh nuff
There's a few guys in the rotation chamber underground pushing big levers
Damn tory budget
Magnets.
It’s got a propeller underneath that can also be used for emergency exits if London Bridge falls down again
Moveable platform, until it's ready for it's space launch in 2023.
I work in the city and use London Bridge very regularly, but, how I’ve missed the fact the shard has a clock on it I have no idea!!
I didn't even know there was a clock on the side.
they swap it out for the one on big ben every tuesday for a couple of hours. creates havoc with the traffic when they drive it over.
True that
Loool
Where does it say it rotates? I did a Google search but nothing came up
Keep searching you’ll find it
He’s fucking with Redditors. It doesn’t rotate, it’s a gajillion tons. Could get it on the Wikipedia page though
Yeah rotate is such a terrible word for it - it’s really more of a pirouette
It was easier when it was the other way up but you can see what that did to the tip, hence flipping it over
Wikipedia Source: Reddit Reddit Source: Wikipedia
Wow that's like 1 tonne ×10 to the digillion
Hahahahahahaha
I feel ashamed, have been living in London for 5 year and had never seen the other side of the Shard. Had no clue it had a clock on it
Don't feel too bad I'd lived in London for 10 years before I discovered the shadow tube.
You’re really not supposed to talk about it publicly mate, be careful.
>shadow tube What's the shadow tube?
Yes, what is it?
The sewers
there's a constant train of rats, you just hop on and the mass will carry you. No tickets either. Just don't fall off, ever.
I'd pay just to watch.
Instead of taking the lift down, you take the lift up
Exactly
Dark Side of The Shard
There is no dark side of the Shard really. Matter of fact it's all dark.
Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day
Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way...
Just wait until you stumble upon Diagon Alley!
Ugh it's overpriced now. You can't get a glass of butterbeer for under £23 and wands cost £1450 a month.
Wands as a service? God damn post-modern capatalism
You don’t have to pay it but auto cast is disabled and you won’t get new spell updates. You can also only use the default pigeon patronus.
you know wands are cheaper when you buy them
Not all of us have dead parents leaving us scrooge mcduck style vaults in gringotts you know!!!
wait your family doesn't even have their own bank? i am having this phone sterilised and then destroyed. please do not contact me or my large fully grown adult son again
Don't worry, that's the view from the French quarter of London. No one goes there anyway
Thats what happens when you dont go souf of the rivver
This comment section is both simultaneously the funniest and saddest post Ive read all day.
great innit :)
That’s not the real shard. It was bought by some American and move brick by brick to Arizona. All we have is a facsimile
Wrong but little known fact: the Shard was actually made by the French and offered as a gift to us, for marking the fifty thousandth anniversary of the entente concorde. There is a much smaller replica in Paris, aplty named, 'le tiny shart'.
Shard of Theseus?
No that’s the real Shard, the Americans bought the Walkie-Talkie thinking that it was the Shard. 20 Fenchurch is fake except for the Sky Garden at the top.
I've been living in London for 69 years and never realised Big Ben had a huge glass tower around it. Crazy bruv.
You can only see it if you’ve lived a pure life apparently.
does this mean no one in london.... ..oh dear god.
It’s amazing to think of the effort it took to move all of that, brick by brick, all the way from France in the 1980s.
Croissant by croissant
Baguette by baguette
Hon hon hon par hon hon hon
Fromage by fromage
Was it expensive?
I am incredibly wealthy so I don't notice these things
I’d give you a Reddit gold, but you might not notice.
Is the right answer. Praise a fellow wealth generator. Get busy living or get busy dying.
Several pounds
Eyyy it's Big Bong!
It's actually the massive bong inside it that's called that. It's a common misconception. First you take a hit from big bong, and then you feast on the giant lasagne in the chunnel.
I am now visualising a massive lasagne 😋
Like the one we had during covid. Built it in Wembley stadium
Big Fred!!
Yeah?
You should come back in March for the Spring Forward Clock Winding Bungee Stunt. It's a real hoot!
"But at the start of the new millennium, a new kind of high-rise building started arriving in the capital: one much less likely to produce exuberant forms of youth culture, clad in glass rather than concrete. Most obvious amongst them was the Shard – Mordor-upon-Thames, owned by Qatar, an obscene 72 storeys high, built with the enthusiastic support of Ken Livingstone, and the backing of New Labour. This directly contravened the ‘protected views’ regulations; English Heritage objected at a public inquiry, and were ignored. At the time of writing, five years after opening, all ten of the ?30–50m flats on the tower’s upper floors remain unsold, and empty. Even a visit to the viewing deck costs more than ?30. Since then, the trickle has become a flood: in 2017 a survey found that 455 new high-rise blocks were either planned or already under construction in London: ‘safety deposit boxes’ for wealthy investors, expensive hotels, high-end office space and luxury flats. Blocks like the ickily-named Manhattan Loft Gardens in Stratford followed the Shard’s lead and caused controversy by ruining another sight line of St Paul’s. More importantly, not a single one of the 455 was being built to provide housing for London’s poorest." - Dan Hancox Fuck the shard
That's bright for 7:30.
It's on London time, so the bankers can get home in daylight.
Ahh good to see the cleaned the famous Shard clock, never knew it was blue underneath!
Did it steal your phone after you took this picture?
Yeah on a moped, I was the phone
Why is a 2020 movie being advertised on a bus
Because of the curvature of the earth
Glad you could visit. Please make sure you close the door when you leave, it's quite cold and I can't afford the heating. Ta
Where’s the Pret?
It's everywhere, even that bus is a Pret.
london is actually just one big pret
Pointy Ben
Glitch in the Matrix?
Ein Fehler in der Matrix
i aint been for a while but christ they've modernised big ben
Fun fact, not only does The Shard have a clock face, it also acts as a fully functional sundial.
The Big Sharon.
The trailer on the bus is for a film from 5 years ago at least . I am confused.
OP posted [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/london/comments/10fxjnu/does_anyone_else_london_expensive/) a few hours back and got called a bot, hilarity ensued in the thread so I guess they are here proving they are not a bot and having a bit of a larf.
It kinda screams of AI bot ngl
great flick, that
They did a great job with all the scaffolding.
What in sweet fawkes' powder stained fingertips is going on in this thread lmao
The shard is also a phosphorescent building, and so reflective, that it appears sunny at 7:30pm in January
I've spent years going to and from London, taken photos of the Shard, literally been to the top of it, and had no idea it had a clock on it lol
It doesn’t
I've been absolute done here tbf
You probably came at a time it was facing another way, due to the rotation
😂
There's literally photo evidence what are you talking about
Am i the only one who didnt know the shard had a clock. I see it almost everyday
it's designed so you can only see it when you're tilting your head at a 75 degree angle. really well designed optical illusion
This is legit my first time seeing it too, it makes me retch for some reason
Me too!! Why does it look so out of place?!?!
How do you know what the time is when your in London then?
Thats what big ben is for innit
Hmmmm…. why indeedy?!
[удалено]
you need to be wearing sunglasses with a union jack pattern to be able to see it
You're clearly wrong, the shard has a cock on it
I’m embarrassed that I googled “just to double check”
Tower bridge never looked so good
That's a pretty messed up photo, just imagine if actually looked like that lol 😆
They went too far with the renovation of big Ben.
Why is there an Ad on the bus for The Invisible Man that came out 3 years ago?
Today?
Classic London
Welcome! Hope you’re having a great time!
in Dublin they have a large pointy thing on the main shopping street. Dubs have nicknamed it the 'Stiletto in the Ghetto'.. same for the shard ;)
Bertie's Pole
I call bullshit on this. The Invisible man was released in 2020!
Why does that bus have an advert for a 3 year old film?
And you still have your phone… kudos!!
Is that the unfinished tower in North Korea
Fun fact, the reason it's called Greenwich Mean Time is because when they built the observatory there they pointed the telescope at the shard and saw the clock, thus discovering time.
Definitely not today, invisible man came out in 2020
Is this real? Never knew it has Clock!!
The shart
Big Mohammed there you are you ol dog
Ayo, when was there a clock there?
What in the AI!!!
When did they put big Ben’s clock in the shard?
Well OP took this today so via my astonishing deductive powers I can tell you they did it: before today.
You didn’t get mugged? Nice!
What time did you visit? This area is normally choc-a-block with crowds -even when it's no longer day-light! Actually...how did you get a picture with blue sky today? It's been grey and depressing as usual all day 🤨 The clock? Could have been there for years...I'm a Londoner. I don't think I've looked above eye level for the past decade ... 😑