New London attraction faces uphill battle

LONDON • Rising from a busy roundabout in central London, it was meant to be a draw for tourists who have largely stayed away from the British capital during the coronavirus pandemic.

But visitors to the 25m-high Marble Arch Mound have been offered refunds after the attraction opened on Monday to widespread disappointment and a great deal of derision.

Westminster Council on Tuesday admitted the grassy platform, which was supposed to provide panoramic views across the city, was "not yet ready for visitors".

"I'd call it a white elephant or maybe a grass-covered white elephant," Mr George Smith told Agence France-Presse as he sheltered from the rain in the shadow of the man-made hill.

"This mound just appears out of nowhere and it doesn't really fit with the aesthetic of the city," the London film-maker added.

Advertisements for the Dutch architecture company MVRDV's temporary installation - which resembles a latter-day Hanging Gardens of Babylon - have appeared at Tube stations. The platform has been billed as "London's newest outdoor attraction".

But the distance between the company's vision and reality, as the cat's cradle of scaffolding has grown and been covered with trees and turf, has been met with bewilderment.

"It dwarfs the lovely Marble Arch," said Ms Jacqui Witchell, referring to the 19th-century white marble-faced arch from which the site gets its name.

The size of the sod-covered protuberance made the usually open space around feel "claustrophobic", she said.

When asked about the £2 million (S$3.8 million) price tag for the installation, Ms Witchell, a teacher, called it "a joke".

Photographs in British newspapers and on social media included a less than spectacular vista from the top, with building rubble and recycling bins in view.

One Twitter user posted a picture of television characters Teletubbies standing on their astroturfed home in Teletubbyland. "Marble Arch Mound opens to visitors at a cost of £2 million," they captioned the image.

With ticket buyers being offered refunds and no further tickets being given until improvements are finished, only a trickle of visitors were making their way up the mound's stairs on Wednesday.

Amid intermittent showers, families and day trippers climbed the structure's steel steps in colourful anoraks, gripping umbrellas in the wind.

At the summit in mid-morning, beneath a blanket of uninterrupted grey cloud, retired architect Mr Robert Young, 64, and his partner were the only two people there, apart from the attraction's stewards.

They had been given the tickets for free but said their expectations were low.

The views from the mound - which is designed to offer a panoramic view of the capital's Oxford Street shopping district, Hyde Park, Mayfair and Marylebone - have also come under criticism.

The view of Marble Arch itself and Oxford Circus to the east are blocked by surrounding trees, with summer providing a dense green canopy on the edge of Hyde Park.

Mr Young said he would not have paid the £4.50 admission fee but said he enjoyed the views of Hyde Park, which stretches across 253ha of green space in central London, saying it was "like a forest".

"It's always good to see London from up high," he said.

"I'm proud of the fact that London is one of the greenest cities in the world and this just shows it," he added, explaining he thought the attraction was just "quite fun".

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE