Climbing The Shard: One man’s dance with death

George King risked everything to climb The Shard — London’s tallest building. In this candid interview, he tells Unheard why he did it, how he prepared, and what happened next.

“I want to live. I want to be around for the people in my life. But to have that control, I need to accept the possibility of death", says King, better known as the Shard Climber, in an exclusive interview with The Independent.

At just 19, he shocked London, and the world, by free-climbing the Shard, Western Europe’s tallest skyscraper, in 2020. The ascent stopped traffic and set off a global media frenzy.

But the feat came at a steep cost: a six-month jail sentence.
Watch Independent Studio’s latest episode of Unheard here.

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