ロンドンの新名所になるはずが…建設費３億円の「小山」に酷評

【ロンドンＡＦＰ＝時事】英ロンドン中心部の交通量の多い交差点に出現した、こんもりとした緑の小山（こやま）は、新型コロナウイルス流行で足が遠のいてしまった観光客を呼び戻す目玉として期待されていた。だが、２６日にオープンした「マーブルアーチ・マウンド」をめぐっては、大きな失望と冷笑が広がっている。（写真は英ロンドン中心部にある凱旋門マーブルアーチのそばに新設された観光名所「マーブルアーチ・マウンド」と案内板）
　１９世紀建造の大理石の凱旋（がいせん）門「マーブルアーチ」のすぐそばにそびえる、芝生に覆われた高さ２５メートルの展望台からは、ロンドン市内がぐるりと一望できるはずだった。ウェストミンスター区議会は２７日、「一般公開の準備がまだ整っていない」と認め、入場料４．５ポンド（約７００円）の払い戻しに応じている。
　人工の小山のふもとで雨宿りをしていた映像作家のジョージ・スミスさんは、「言うなれば、白いゾウだ。草に覆われた白いゾウと言ったほうがいいかな」とＡＦＰに語った。白いゾウとは、英語で無用の長物を意味する。「どこからともなく現れたこの小山は、ロンドンの景観に全くそぐわない」
　「バビロンの空中庭園」を思わせる展望台は、オランダの建築集団ＭＶＲＤＶが手掛けた期間限定のインスタレーションだ。ロンドン地下鉄の駅構内に張られた宣伝ポスターは、「ロンドン最新の屋外アトラクション」とうたっている。
　しかし、教師のジャッキー・ウィッチェルさんは、展望台のせいで「美しいマーブルアーチが小さく見える」と述べ、本来ならば開放感のある場所が「閉塞（へいそく）感」に満ちていると苦言を呈した。
　展望台の建設費が２００万ポンド（約３億円）だと聞くと、「冗談でしょう」とウィッチェルさんはあきれた。
　英各紙の紙面やソーシャルメディアには、がれきやリサイクルごみの山と評される頂上からの、決して絶景とは言えない眺めを伝える写真が掲載されている。
　マーブルアーチ・マウンドは、繁華街オックスフォードストリートを見下ろし、メリルボーン、メイフェア、ハイドパークをぐるりと見渡せるよう設計された。だが、マーブルアーチはもちろん、オックスフォードサーカス方面の眺望も生い茂った周囲の木々に遮られてしまっていて、視界の悪さが批判を浴びている。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】

〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2021/08/03-11:31）

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 25-metre (82-foot) high Marble Arch Mound have been offered refunds after it opened on Monday, amid widespread disappointment and a great deal of derision.
Westminster Council on Tuesday admitted the grass-clad viewing platform, which was supposed to provide panoramas across the city was not yet ready for visitors.
I'd call it a white elephant or maybe a grass-covered white elephant, George Smith told AFP as he sheltered from the rain in the shadow of the man-made mini-mountain.
This mound just appears out of nowhere and it doesn't really fit with the aesthetic of the city, the London filmmaker added.
Advertising posters for Dutch architecture company MVRDV's temporary installation -- resembling a latter-day Hanging Gardens of Babylon -- have appeared at Tube stations.
It 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 dwarves the lovely Marble Arch, said Jacqui Witchell, referring to the 19th century white marble-faced, triumphal arch from which the site gets its name.
The size of the new sod-covered protuberance made the usually open space around feel claustrophobic, she said.
When asked about the £2 million ($2.7 million, 2.3 million euro) price tag for the installation, Witchell, a teacher, called it a joke.
- Eh-oh, uh-oh -
Photographs in British newspapers and on social media included a less-than-spectacular vista from the top of building rubble and recycling bins.
One Twitter user posted a picture of the Teletubbies standing on their astroturfed home in Teletubbyland.
Marble Arch Mound opens to visitors at a cost of £2 million, they wrote, as the aerial-headed children's television characters waved back.
With visitors who previously booked tickets being offered refunds and no further tickets being given until improvements are finished, only a trickle of visitors were making their way up the stairs of the mound on Wednesday.
Amid intermittent showers, families and day trippers climbed the steel steps of the structure in colourful anoraks, gripping umbrellas in the wind.
At the summit in mid-morning, beneath a blanket of uninterrupted grey cloud, Robert Young, 64, and his partner were the only two people -- apart from the attraction's stewards.
They had been given the tickets for free by a friend but said their expectations were low.
The views from the mound, which is designed to offer a panorama 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.
Young, a retired architect, said he wouldn't have paid the £4.50 admission but said he enjoyed the views of Hyde Park, 253 hectares (625 acres) 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.