Last year’s addition to the pantheon of really-crap-things-that-people-become-unwarrantedly-fascinated-by, the lamentable Marble Arch Mound, was dismantled in February. The ‘attraction’ – a 25-metre-high artificial hill overlooking Hyde Park – was greeted with scorn and incomprehension when it was announced as part of a huge injection of money by Westminster Council into Oxford Street to attempt to lure shoppers and diners back to the West End. Those sentiments only increased when the Mound actually opened, amid reports of its drabness, unfinished appearance and poor value for money.
Now it’s been revealed by Westminster Council that dismantling the mound cost taxpayers in the region of £660,000. That's a spicy demolition meatball.
The Mound opened in July 2021, and initially cost visitors £8 to climb up. It closed almost immediately. When it reopened in August, the entry fee was dropped and it was admitted that the Mound had not originally been ready to open. It also transpired that the attraction was massively over-budget, costing £6 million against the original estimate of £3.3m. Questions were raised, resignations were tendered, an art space was opened in the Mound’s empty heart.
Still, it’s probably fair to say that the poor old Mound did elicit some sympathy in Londoners, partly because it was the perfect visual piece of metaphorical landscape art to embody the ongoing pandemic shambles, partly because it looked a bit like Minecraft, and partly because there wasn’t really anything else to talk about last summer. It closed for good in January 2022.
And some people obviously have a slightly unhealthy fascination with it:
After a dismal failure as a tourist attraction the #MarbleArchMound is being dismantled. Click for photos: https://t.co/mOvYEFfSjs
— Barry Carter (@Barryoneoff) February 23, 2022
It was demolished despite a half-hearted social-media petition to make it permanent (let’s not forget that the equally underwhelming Eiffel Tower was originally intended to be temporary). As the turf has come off the scaffolding frame, the poor thing looks even more pathetic than it did before. Mind you, it survived Storm Eunice a lot better than the Millennium Dome did, and that cost nearly £800m.
Something to tell your cyber-grandchildren about.
The Marble Arch Mound, Jul 26 2021-Jan 9 2022.
There’s a £73m Guinness microbrewery opening in Covent Garden.
London Theatre Week is back with £15 West End seats.
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