On New Years Eve, there are many options open. You can sit inside and watch a review show followed by footage of the London fireworks, you can pay to go into the pub that you normally just walk into, you can go to a club full of people off their tits on drugs, or you can stand in mass swarms along the Thames and watch the fireworks. There is another option though, you can climb a tall building and watch the fireworks erupt all over London. I went for the last option.

The Neo Bankside development had been done by a number of people over the last year, and I had wanted to see the Tate from above. However other things got in the way. We had planned to do another explore I'd done recently, but on looking to turn up with a couple of others, I was greeted by the site of a crowd of fellow explorers. My heart sank, as this wasn't somewhere suited to such a large group. So we looked at other alternatives, the Ne0 Bankside being the better option. And so it was, that the 12-strong group headed over to Neo Bankside. Access was straightforward to the ballsier majority, who walked past a reception desk. A few of us went a slightly less obvious way, but the result was the same. After trying to help an explorer get over his heights issues, the way I had years ago, we re-grouped on the roof.
The Shell-Mex building obscured the view of the eye to some extent. The Thames was lit up with changing colours from huge lights placed on barges and the eye itself.

It was not more than a half-hour wait, and it was show time!

And so it went on

And there were even a few that went off near the City.

Back at the Eye, it was still all going on.

Blackfriars bridge like all around the Thames was rammed.

The mass of tripods on the roof, Kaitie in the foreground.

Looking South to previous explore, the Strata and beyond.

Looking East sees the Shard getting ever closer to topping out. Twice as high as Guy's Hospital stood next to it.

The Millennium Bridge linking the Tate Modern to St. Pauls. Pleasure craft probably charging very reasonable rates for tonight creating light trails on the Thames. It's shots like this that remind you why planners are keen to keep views of St. Pauls unobscured.

A rare shot of Tower Bridge below Canary Wharf. Southwark Cathedral in the foreground.

And then it was down the steps to join another crowd of explorers that had been up a crane nearby.