Work can begin on London's tallest skyscraper

Work can begin on London's -- and potentially Europe's -- tallest building after initial funding worth 196 million pounds ($368.6 million) was secured, its developers said on Tuesday.
The London Bridge Tower, which has been widely dubbed the "Shard" because it will look like an enormous shard of glass, is more than 1,000 feet high, has 72 storeys and is part of a 1.6 million square-foot mixed-use development on the south bank opposite London's City financial district.
"We can start demolishing the existing building towards the end of next year and deliver the completed project between 2010 and 2011," Irvine Sellar, chairman of the Sellar Property Group, said.
Sellar owns an equal share of the company behind the development -- Teighmore Ltd -- together with CLS Holdings plc and CN Ltd, which is part of the Halabi Family Trust.
The interim finance was provided by a syndicate of banks led by Nationwide Building Society. Part of funding has been used to buy an occupational lease held on the 1970s building that will be demolished to make way for the Shard, a statement said.
Almost half of the commercial space in the development has been pre-let, it added. That included two 30-year leases on 390,000 square feet of space in the Shard with Transport for London and Shangri-La Hotels.
By current standards, the Shard would be Europe's tallest building -- higher than the 866-feet Triumph Palace in Moscow. But by 2010 it could be surpassed by another Moscow-based building, the 118-storey Moscow City Towers.