Free climber jailed for scaling The Shard climbs 36 story building with bare hands

Then-teenager George King inspired the ire of the law in 2019 after climbing the UK’s tallest building, landing himself with a six-month term in Pentonville Prison

A free climber that found himself behind bars for illegally climbing The Shard in London has scaled a 36-storey London apartment complex in his latest stunt.

Then-teenager George King-Thompson drew the ire of the law in 2019 after climbing the UK’s tallest building, landing himself with a six-month term in Pentonville Prison for breaching a High Court order.

However, undeterred by that penalty, the Oxford-native was at it again on Tuesday morning, using nothing but his bare hands to scale Stratosphere Tower in Stratford, East London.

Mr King-Thompson said he actually resolved to complete the feat while still behind bars for his 2019 climb.

The 21-year-old said: “I decided to do it as I came out of prison to be honest, or maybe inside prison.”

Gob-smacked residents watched from their windows as the he scurried up the front of the tower in just 30 minutes.

Managers of the building said that they were unaware Mr King had attempted the 117m, or 384ft, climb.

Police couldn’t spot him either. The Met said they used a police helicopter to search the area after they received a call about 45 minutes after he started his 5 am climb, but could not locate him.

His recent effort pales in comparison to his 2019 stunt, where he climbed the 310-metre, over 1000ft, Shard in just 45 minutes.

Either way, the ascent went well, with the stuntman’s manager saying: “George said the climb was quite tough but went well. It caused no disruption and it left people in the street smiling.”

The young man did concede that he did feel worried at one point when his grip began to slip.

“The night before, there’s always a lot of pressure when you know you’ve got to climb first thing in the morning, so the nerves were high, the fear was there, but I had it under control and by morning time I went and did it – and I’m alive,” he said.

“But one of the things which I underestimated was how from eight floors right to the top the windows had lots of stuff on them and they were extremely slippery.

“That was the only fear and disconcerting thing about it.”

He added: “I gained a lot from this experience. I come away from each climb enlightened.

“It’s an indescribable feeling – it’s like trying to describe a colour to a blind person. The feeling I get from doing these things is just out of this world.”

George said he was inspired to climb Stratosphere Tower by erratic weather caused by climate change.

Citing a UK heatwave being so quickly followed by flooding in London, he said: “I picked this climb because a couple of weeks ago I saw a photo go viral of a Stratford station under water because of a flood following the heatwave.

“It was a stark reminder of how bad climate change is getting, so I thought: what can I do to help promote the message – me of not much power in this world?

“I saw one of the tallest buildings in Stratford so decided last week to climb it, and since then it has just been intense preparation to get me to that point.

“I would urge political leaders to take drastic action as soon as possible to get this situation under control.”

Back in 2019, the former personal trainer breached an injunction imposed by Shard management to prevent the scaling of their building in protest against the number of empty luxury apartments in the skyscraper.

Mr King features in Adrenaline Addicts, a Channel 4 digital series, where he travels across the UK to meet other people who do extreme sports such as bare knuckle boxing, base jumping and cliff jumping.

In an exclusive interview with The Mirror, George told how he felt comradery with people he met as they shared his ability to “control fear” and “live in the moment”.