![]() ![]() The views of Oxford Street had never been seen before, they had assured potential visitors – plus there would be views of Hyde Park. The $2.8 million development, which sits on the edge of Oxford Street, had promised sweeping views over London from its panoramic platform, 82 feet and 130 steps up. The Marble Arch Mound, which opened July 26, has swiftly been branded the UK capital’s worst site – because rather than being the hoped-for sylvan glade of lush grass and trees sprouting from its sides, it’s little more than a mound of earth. When the installation reaches the end of its run, any materials used “will be recycled where possible to provide a lasting legacy” and the trees and landscape “will be relocated to other parts of the District and local community”, according to the Oxford Street District website.It’s the home of Tower Bridge, the Houses of Parliament and that great big wheel spinning beside the Thames, but London’s newest tourist attraction might just eclipse them all – at least, in notoriety. The Marble Arch Mound will be open to visitors until early January 2022. “We’ll continue to adapt and improve London’s newest outdoor attraction,” says the council’s statement. ![]() Westminster City Council admitted there were “teething problems” and has offered free return tickets to anybody who booked a visit during the first week. As long as you go with that expectation it is ok – just a shame it cost £2 million.” “More as you might enjoy a bad statue of Cristiano Ronaldo, or a car park Santa's Grotto, with dogs pretending to be reindeer, than as a dazzling spectacle. On Twitter, one visitor joked that it cost 5p to climb each step and that introducing fast-track tickets seemed “odd” as “even nearing sunset on launch day” it was “very quiet”. The hill has been likened “to a level from Nintendo game Super Mario 64, the Teletubbies’ home, or worse still ‘seven minutes of work on Minecraft’”, reports MailOnline. There have also been questions about why “something so artificial-looking has been built next to the great natural expanse of green land that is Hyde Park”, the site adds. “Instead they were treated to sights of rubble, building works and scaffolding” from a viewing platform which was “covered in brown turf”. On its disappointing launch day, tourists “did not see the ‘soaring views across central London and Hyde Park’ from the lush landscape they were promised”, says the London Evening Standard. “The site’s bare and sparse appearance is a sharp contrast to the lush green landscape envisioned in the project’s planning proposals,” says The Telegraph. It is hoped to be “the kind of novelty experience that will lure people back to the West End”, the paper adds, “providing an opportunity for highly shareable Instagram moments, beyond selfies with armfuls of Selfridges bags”.īut after opening its doors to the general public on Monday, the mound has faced a barrage of criticism from visitors and ridicule on social media, primarily for looking nothing like its glossy artist’s impression. The artificial mountain is located on the western end of Oxford Street, where around 17% of shops have closed completely during the pandemic, says The Guardian. Tickets start from £4.50 with a “fast-track” weekend ticket costing £8. The Oxford Street District website describes the mound, which has 134 steps, as being “a park-like landscape of grass and trees” which “gives visitors striking views of London and the park, and a new perspective of Marble Arch itself”. The 25-metre-tall Marble Arch Mound is a temporary installation commissioned by Westminster City Council and designed by the Rotterdam-based architecture studio MVRDV. ![]() Repurposing empty shops: the future of the British high street.Radical plans unveiled to pedestrianise Oxford Street - in pictures.
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