To be amused by how absurdly shite the marble arch mound is

[Gardentiger]

I mean honestly, it's just abysmal

I know it's not funny that 2 million pounds could have been put up much better use, but the sheer crapness of it is making me laugh

They could probably have built a more effective and aesthetically pleasing viewing platform just using the scaffolding, maybe with a lick of paint.

What a waste of money. I love weird public art stuff but this is just pointless.

I always hoped the garden bridge would open. In the pictures it looked like some sort of Eden project utopia but you just know it would have been an ugly bridge with some pot plants on it and it would have been a total shitshow.

Yes, an impressive bit of scaffolding covered in that outdoor wallpaper would be fun.

Re the mound, I think the observation platform was maybe the original idea, and then a committee decided to make it 'safe and accessible' would be my very generous guess.

Pleased to have seen this thread, I’m in London for the weekend and will know to avoid it.

Who ever idea it was is lucky weve got the olympics , covid and test and trace to distract everyones attention from such an epic waste of money...

@SinisterBumFacedCat

YANBU I love these things! Like every year a terrible “Winter Wonderland” will be in the tabloids, people expect Lapland and get some sheds in a muddy field with a drunken, chain smoking Santa and disappointed parents throwing punches at Elves.

What can you see from the top?

What an eyesore! I wonder who is responsible!?

Designed by the same entertainment team responsible for Craggy Island's fun fair. (The Tunnel of Goats! Duck Startling! Etc)

@breakfasty

What can you see from the top?

Disappointment and your own shattered dreams.

Try the Sistine chapel instead

Disappointment and your own shattered dreams.

Worth £6 then. Reminds me of Banksy dismaland.

Hope to goodness London paid for it and not U.K. taxpayers. Our roundabouts aren't really maintained these days - the odd flowery one - the rest weeds

It's right next to an actual park! How much more green space is needed in Hyde Park?

Exactly!

This part of London doesn’t lack open space!

However I think it’s a gimmick to attract shoppers, not a piece of art or a park.

But it is very like something from an episode of Parks and Rec!

I live in London and it makes me sad. Why not close Oxford street and have street party or something.

Oh my goodness, it’s awful! Is this Boris’s idea of a joke? Ha ha, no need to pay nurses, I’ll burn the money, no I’ll spend it on fake grass, scaffolding to make a rat fest eye sore… and try and make the idiot public pay for it too!
Shaft them once, twice, three times the charm baby… honestly words fail me.

And the environmental impact for something temporary...

Oh! I think there's an exhibition inside it?

Still. Waste of money.

There is a lift so that's a plus for those who struggle with stairs and would like to be high up.

osd.london/project/marble-arch-mound/

Only logo on site is City if Westminster, so seems to be funded by local council, not Boris or the Mayor.

I would guess it is funded by the business rate payers of Oxford Street.

Isn't it meant to encourage shoppers to go to Oxford Street, even though some shops have closed, because so many of us shop online?

I don't see how this would serve to 'attract shoppers'.

I like viewpoints, I like walking up hills, I love green spaces... but they're a completely different thing to shopping. Water features and planting at ground level for shade, colour and maybe scent, that can make the experience nicer.

gottalotta I too like oddnliblic stiff but as cor the ‘garden’ bridge I spent 4 years campaigning tooth and nail against it - corporate private space, destroying one of the best stretches and views of st Paul’s, shut more hours than open, etc etc. Will never forget Westminster planning meeting heckle ‘sir Christopher wren will be turning in his grave’. Perhaps Tyburn will be re this mound ?

Sadie Khan is turning London into one big cycle lane to cut emissions, spending on other environmental projects like drinking fountains to cut the use of single use plastics and want London to be zero carbon by 2030 yet here with have a a £2millon mound of plastic. Kind of defeats the object of their supposed aims.
You have to do your bit but they can make the right noises but do what they want.

@proudboomer

This is nothing to do with Sadiq Khan, it's the responsibility of Westminster Council, who built it in the expectation that it would make money for them.