Up On the Roof (one more time)

Back up into the sky, this time with a trip up the neighbour of ‘The Beast’, The Lookout on the 50th floor of number 8 Bishopsgate.

Though not as high as number 22, the views are (of course) utterly stunning and uninterrupted through around 270° with sightlines down the river to Greenwich and beyond, and north towards Tottenham. The main alignment upriver along the Thames brings Waterloo Bridge, the Golden Jubilee bridges and even Buckingham Palace seemingly within touching distance.

There is no seating in the space, but there is a coffee stall, and the staff (including those on the security desk in the lobby) are all very friendly, but (as with 22 Bishopsgate) one gets the sense that the building owners don’t really want the hoi polloi intruding into their shiny new building (the viewing gallery is a planning obligation).

There is just the one lift that shuttles between the ground floor and level 50. Ostensibly with a capacity of 11, it doesn’t really take more than 8 at a time. There is a second lift, but that apparently is only used when corporate events are taking place in the space. Although this means that the gallery is uncrowded, on a not particularly busy day in May we still had to wait for three lifts to make their journey to the top and back down before we could get in.

This might explain why all the timed entry tickets disappear so quickly – they simply do not make many available. However, if you can’t book a ticket, they do take “walk ins”, but I’m told to get there as close to opening time as possible for the best chance of getting in.