How do you celebrate 20 years, 200 issues, 33,000 pages and 10 million words?

Take over The View from The Shard, fill it to its 375-guest capacity – and make sure the drinks don’t stop.

From former cover stars to editors, writers and photographers, the room was filled with Square Mile alumni and friends.

The Sax Man was on the decks keeping the vibes as high as the surroundings. And with drinks from Nyetimber, Silent Pool, Tenuta di Trinoro, and Pillars, everyone was in fine fettle.

By the time the Tamdhu 21 Year Old was being poured, the love was practically overflowing.

But how did we get here?

Like all good ideas, it started in the pub. The specific pub was Clapham’s The Frog and Forget-Me-Not (ironically, long since forgotten).

The idea? A glossy, luxury lifestyle magazine aimed squarely at high-flying financial executives – and, crucially, it would be free to those who lived, worked or drank in the City of London.

It was spring 2005, and the two gentlemen behind the concept were Stephen Murphy (from Dublin) and Tim Slee (from Cornwall) – an unexpected pairing for a magazine targeting Londoners. But maybe that’s what made it work.

I was lucky enough to meet them over a pint at The Frog when Square Mile was still a relative tadpole. We were watching England v Ireland in the Six Nations. Slee had a lager, Murphy a Guinness – and despite being big rugby fans, all they could talk about was launching this magazine. Their passion was infectious.

Within a week, I’d quit my job at a major publishing house and joined them. This might be considered an ill-informed choice, especially when I turned up for my first day and discovered there was no desk for me.

The ever resourceful Mr Slee said “no bother” and pulled down an empty cardboard box from the loft, a one-time home to a Hewlett-Packard monitor (shout out to the cathode ray-tube) – and that became my desk. So there I sat – building a magazine from the bottom up. Emphasis on bottom at this stage.

Unsurprisingly, it turns out the view from the top of the Shard is a lot more appealing.

Here's to the next 20 years! 

See more: theviewfromtheshard.com. Subscribe to Square Mile here.