The Shard

After Lincoln's Inn, my Project Director asked if I wanted to join him on a new project. The Shard.

I started as Site Manager. Then additional work came in - a new contract, a second scope - and my PD asked if I could run it as PM. All those years in Overbury as supervisor and assistant to PMs had given me something. I had the PM mentality long before I had the title. This was the moment it became official.

The job: build the new marketing suite on level 22. Once it was operational, strip out level 14 and reinstate to Cat A. One floor had to be finished before the other could start. The logistics alone were a full-time problem.

A form to get a delivery through the front door. A booked slot to use the goods lift. A timed window to move a pallet from ground to floor. Miss the slot and the pallet waits. The programme does not wait.

The Sellar Group had people in that building every day. Their PM was on site, walking the floors, watching every contractor, pushing for faster turnarounds. You could not hide. You could not drift. You had to be on top of everything, all the time, in one of the most visible buildings in London.

Then came 11 July 2013.

I came up from London Bridge station that morning as usual. The street was full of police cars, ambulances, and fire engines. Security at the entrance told me there were climbers on the building. I used my site pass, went up to my floor, and waited.

From the glass I could see them. A few metres away, on the outside, climbing. I took photos. They made it to the top - all six of them - unfurled a Save the Arctic flag, and were arrested.

A Greenpeace protest against Shell's Arctic drilling. Later I read the names. All six were women. One of them was Wiola Smul. Twenty-three years old. From Poland. I had arrived from Poland eight years earlier. I was standing inside the building she was climbing on the outside of. I found that worth thinking about.

We both came from the same country. We both ended up at the same building on the same morning. We just had very different reasons for being there.

I kept the deliveries tight, kept a demanding client happy, and landed the next job with my PD's team - Royal Courts of Justice. Another story.

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