Couple wave at man climbing past their window at the Shard 40 floors up

They said it was 'amazing uplifting' to see the young man who had scaled the building.

Couple wave at barefoot man climbing past their window at the Shard 40 floors up — The Metropolitan Police later confirmed that a 21-year-old man had been arrested on suspicion of trespass. iStock

PA Media

4th Sep 2022

A couple staying on the 40th floor of The Shard were in bed when they spotted a man waving and climbing past their window at 6am.

Paul Curphey said it was “amazingly uplifting” to see the young man on Sunday, who had appeared to scale the 1,016-foot building in central London barefoot.

The Metropolitan Police later confirmed that a 21-year-old man had been arrested on suspicion of trespass and two other men arrested on suspicion of causing public nuisance, as the London Ambulance Service and London Fire Brigade all attended the scene.

Mr Curphey, 52, and his partner Treasaidh, were visiting the capital for a birthday trip and were lying in bed on floor 40 of the building when someone started “waving at the window”.

“The climber was yelling in celebratory fashion,” Mr Curphey, a retail businessman from the Isle of Man, told the PA news agency.

“He appeared, waving at the window, 40 floors up, already in the deep end so to speak. We couldn’t help but urge him on to complete his mission.

“He was smiling, waving, and having the time of his life.

“(My) partner thought I had pulled all the stops out and managed to get a guy to bring a box of Milk Tray for her birthday.”

Mr Curphey added the climber had a “happy demeanour”.

“It was scary to see, but his happy demeanour was amazingly uplifting.”