City Hall Big Time Disappointment

On Friday afternoon I popped into London’s City Hall,  which is the headquarters of the Greater London Authority for a visit. I wasn’t there in search of Mayor Boris Johnson…well not this time! I was there to take in the views from the 9th floor balcony to see for myself if they were as good as they were cracked up to be.

I had read on another blog, that the public could gain access to London’s Living Room and the viewing balcony as long as there wasn’t an event on, such as Mayor Boris having some tea and afternoon cakes or such like! I was in the area so I thought lets have a wee peek.

City Hall of London is a building that I have walked past many times, but this was the first time I had walked through the hallowed doors of one of the more interesting looking buildings along the banks of the River Thames. I successfully passed through the airport style scanners and into the domain of Mayor Boris.

There was a queue at the reception so I headed straight for he lift. I thought how difficult could it be to get to the top of City Hall, which was incidentally designed by Norman Foster. In I goes to the lift, presses the button for the 9th floor. A couple of seconds later the lift door opens, I thought fucking heck that lift is deceptively quick.

I gets out the lift to discover that  I’m only on the 2nd floor, I cussed a bit got back in the lift and kept on pressing the button for the 9th floor…nothing was happening. So I got out of  the lift, intending on walking to the top. I asked the female security guard about gaining access to the viewing balcony, only to be told that the it wasn’t possible and that the only times the general public are now able to visit the Living Room and access the top floor balcony is on  Open House Weekends.

I will have to wait until Open House Weekend in September to find out just how good the views from the top of City Hall are. Meantime I found some pictures courtesy of the good old BBC 360 Degree City Hall Pictures.

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