A summit high above Speakers Corner ought to be a great location for an overview but instead all that's visible is an undulating canopy of trees almost as far as the eye can see. Perhaps the biggest disappointment is Hyde Park. The top of the BT Tower pokes out above a rooftop, but every single skyscraper in the City is concealed behind the London Marriott Hotel Park Lane and the next landmark of interest on the skyline is the Shard.
Marble Arch ought to be clearer but the saplings planted at the top of the mound ensure that's part-obscured, indeed it was best seen from about five flights up, which is a self-inflicted own goal. Oxford Street, for example, is entirely shielded by a single very large plane tree whose lush foliage blocks all sight. Instead you'll be focusing on the 360° panorama because this is a unique view, even if it's not exactly perfect. although you won't be looking in that direction. The summit is a circuit of metal plates above a dark void. Try not to think about the fact that what you're really doing is climbing a massive stack of temporary scaffolding, and best not drop anything down the gaps. The climb is also the best time to stare at the greenery covering the mound, for which read scrappy mats of sedum, although I did spot a bumble bee amid the occasional flower and irrigated tree. Before long you're looking down at tourists on the top decks of open buses and little taxis pootling by, and eventually peering over the tops of trees. Ascent is via a metal staircase twisting up the southern flank - I counted fifteen flights of nine steps each - with the vista gradually improving as you go round. The mound is 25 metres high so it's a decent climb, roughly the equivalent of an eight-storey building, although there is a lift if you'd rather not. I can't guarantee they'll be quite as lenient a) at the weekend b) after August c) on the day you turn up. The lady with the clicker said they were letting anyone up on spec, so that was good news for the family wandering in behind me.
and was unexpectedly ushered through the opening gazebo without it being checked. E-ticket at the ready I set off for Marble Arch. I was expecting all yesterday's tickets to have gone when I checked first thing, it being the school holidays, but no, there was decent availability for an ascent within hours.
#MARBLE ARCH MOUND FREE#
So I've been up.Īdmission may be free but you still have to prebook, ostensibly because there's a limit of 25 people at the summit. Westminster council's deputy leader duly resigned over the sheer waste of public money and the 'attraction' reopened with free admission throughout the month of August, attracting those curious to see what all the fuss was about. The vegetation planted on the exterior of the mound hadn't bedded in so looked threadbare, the exhibition due to take pride of place within the exterior of the mound was nowhere near ready and the whole thing was exposed as a badly disguised pile of scaffolding in the centre of a busy gyratory. Instead the Marble Arch Mound, as it was downgraded, opened as a laughing stock and promptly closed a few days later. They expected "hundreds of thousands of visitors to come back to the West End to see this spectacular attraction." They were not proved correct. A hollowed-out mountain based on a scaffolding structure, Marble Arch Hill will redefine the connection between Oxford Street and Hyde Park while giving visitors rare views over the park and Marble Arch." "Marble Arch Hill is a temporary installation next to London’s Marble Arch that will add a new attraction to the area beginning in 2021.
0 kommentar(er)
