So, how much is The Shard? In cold hard cash: £435 million to build, £700 million to own, £5 million a year to keep clean. In emotional currency: priceless—or about 1,500 pints of London’s finest ale, depending on your priorities.
But here’s the real answer: The Shard is a magnificent, overgrown silly straw of a building that costs more than your house, my house, and the house of everyone you know combined. And it’s totally worth it, because nothing says “I’m British” like spending a fortune on a giant pointy thing that occasionally disappears into the fog.