Clinging tightly to a crane 1,000ft up, this ‘urban explorer’ dare not look down.
For he is perched at the top of London’s Shard, Europe’s tallest building, and it’s a long drop to the city below. Now his group has posted a stomach-churning video of their exploits online - which can be seen below - and it's certainly not for those who suffer from vertigo.
Bradley Garrett, 31, is one of a small group of urban explorers who sneak into London landmarks at night to explore skyscrapers or disused Tube tunnels despite the safety risks and possibility of arrest.
The stunt will dismay the security operation that surrounds the huge construction project amid claims just one guard was on duty each night.
Dr Garrett, who has written a PhD thesis on what he calls ‘place-hacking’, said his group called the London Consolidation Crew had climbed up the Shard a number of times over the past 12 months.
He said his group had first scaled the building to watch New Year’s Eve fireworks over London in December 2010.
He added: ‘We have been really interested in the construction and how things have progressed. The security has got better over time but you just can’t secure a site that big.
‘There was usually only one security guard, so we waited until he had finished his round and gone into his hut, then swung off London Bridge on to a walkway.
‘We pushed open the door to the central staircase and ran up the stairs two at a time.
'At the 31st floor the three men were sweating heavily, at the 50th they had to stop for breath, at the 70th the concrete staircase turned into metal ladders and then wooden ladders took them to the current top, the 76th floor.
'Right at the top is a crane with a red light at its zenith to warn aircraft.'
Dr Garrett, 31, who is from Los Angeles in the U.S., said: ‘When you’re hanging on to the crane and it’s shaking in the wind you do feel nervous.
'But to go up and touch the red light right at the ultimate pinnacle is incredibly exhilarating. If I felt it was unsafe I wouldn’t do it.’
‘We don’t break in – we sneak in. We never cause criminal damage and we leave everything exactly how we find it. We’re doing it as we love the building. Ninety per cent of the time no-one even knows we have been in and out of the place.'
Dr Garrett, who lives in Clapham, south-West London, said he and his group had 'done with' the Shard for now.
The Shard will have 95 floors when it is finished next month and will rise to 1,016ft including a gleaming spire. It will house a hotel, restaurant, viewing platform, flats and offices.
Work on the Shard began in February 2009 and an estimated £450million has been spent on its construction so far.
The building will offer uninterrupted 360-degree views of the capital, stretching for 40 miles in every direction.
Visitors will be able to enjoy the view from an observatory that will be 72 floors up.
Billed as a ‘vertical city’, it will comprise offices up to floor 28, then three floors of restaurants; a five-star 19-storey hotel of 200 rooms; ten apartments over 12 floors – each seven times larger than a semi-detached house and likely to fetch tens of millions of pounds each; and, finally, the observatory and spire.
Designed by Italian Renzo Piano to resemble an iceberg emerging from the Thames, The Shard has not been without controversy.
English Heritage has expressed fears about the ‘major and detrimental’ impact on views of St Paul’s Cathedral, the Tower of London and the Palace of Westminster.
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