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30 St Mary Axe, officially The Swiss Re Building, colloquially The Gherkin is one of the most prominent and tallest buildings in modern London, but it's proving difficult to find out for sure whether it has any public viewing platform or bar or restaurant accessible to the public, or any open days or such when an exception might be made to allow public viewing at certain special times.

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There is a private restaurant and bar but not just anyone can go there.

Is there any way for a normal member of the public to view London from this building?

The view that few are able to enjoy

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    I did say normal member of the public, but normal for London may be a special case. (-:
    – hippietrail
    Commented Oct 17, 2011 at 10:47
  • Thanks for the photo Mark, I meant to come back and add one.
    – hippietrail
    Commented Oct 17, 2011 at 11:39
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    Often there are charity events for climbing tall buildings. For £30 you could climb the Gherkin in April 2011 to raise money for the Christchurch earthquake appeal. I think they did a climb of it for child cancer last year (2010). that and the London open house are about your two best bets(short of getting a job there) londonopenhouse.org (not a sure bet but it has been opened in the past)
    – Stuart
    Commented Oct 17, 2011 at 13:16
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    @Stuart - agree with hippietrail, take your comment and turn it into an answer :)
    – Mark Mayo
    Commented Oct 19, 2011 at 11:21
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    It's a different building but you can now go to the top of the Shard: theviewfromtheshard.com "London's highest viewing platform at the top of Western Europe's tallest building"
    – A E
    Commented Dec 28, 2014 at 18:57

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Often there are charity events for climbing tall buildings.

For £30 you could climb the Gherkin in April 2011 to raise money for the Christchurch earthquake appeal.

I think they did a climb of it for child cancer last year (2010).

That and the London open house are about your two best bets short of getting a job there)(not a sure bet but it has been opened in the past) .

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  • Just to warn you, the queue for the Gherkin at last year's Open House was the longest of any event and people were getting there at 4 am for a spot in line.
    – TheMathemagician
    Commented Aug 11, 2014 at 8:34
  • In previous years they have balloted tickets, last year I only went to mid level buildings like Battersea power station and it was 3 mile queue an hour before it opened.
    – Stuart
    Commented Aug 12, 2014 at 10:01

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