Skyline London: A Guide to the Finest Views from the Capital's Highest Points

An awe-inspiring, essential guide to London's high points and what can be seen from them

For the best view of New York, you go up the Empire State Building; in Paris, the Eiffel Tower; and in 2012, London will have the Shard, with its 72nd-floor observation deck, the tallest building in Europe.

But London, as this fascinating and original guidebook shows, is already full of fabulous views from above, if one knows where to go—and those vistas are not of a rigid grid-pattern of streets as in New York, but the teeming intricacy of a capital city shaped by settlement and redevelopment since Roman times. From Becton Alps in East London to Henman Hill at Wimbledon's All-England Club, and from Edison's Lighthouse at Leamouth to the top of Centre Point, here are 50 amazing and unexpected aerial views available to the curious visitor—of the sinuous course of the Thames, the radiating arcs of railway lines, or Waterloo Station at night lit up like an antique glasshouse. Skyline maps allow sightseers to identify everything they can see from any of 50 elevated vantage points. The guide provides comprehensive details of access, opening hours, and nearby public transport, as well as featuring jaw-dropping new aerial photography of London. It will appeal to the foreign tourist and the longtime London resident alike, and offers the best—because they're the highest—places for a drink, a meal, a party, or even a wedding. It will truly enable travelers to see London in a different way.