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ArcelorMittal Orbit

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ArcelorMittal Orbit
ArcelorMittal Orbit
ArcelorMittal Orbit
ArcelorMittal Orbit
ArcelorMittal Orbit
ArcelorMittal Orbit
ArcelorMittal Orbit
ArcelorMittal Orbit
ArcelorMittal Orbit
ArcelorMittal Orbit
ArcelorMittal Orbit
ArcelorMittal Orbit
ArcelorMittal Orbit
ArcelorMittal Orbit
ArcelorMittal Orbit
ArcelorMittal Orbit
ArcelorMittal Orbit
ArcelorMittal Orbit
ArcelorMittal Orbit
ArcelorMittal Orbit
ArcelorMittal Orbit
ArcelorMittal Orbit
ArcelorMittal Orbit
ArcelorMittal Orbit
ArcelorMittal Orbit
Phone:
+44 333 800 8099

Hours:
Sunday10am - 6pm
Monday11am - 5pm
Tuesday11am - 5pm
Wednesday11am - 5pm
Thursday11am - 5pm
Friday11am - 5pm
Saturday10am - 6pm


The ArcelorMittal Orbit is a 114.5-metre-high sculpture and observation tower in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford, London. It is Britain's largest piece of public art, and is intended to be a permanent lasting legacy of London's hosting of the 2012 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games, assisting in the post-Olympics regeneration of the Stratford area. Sited between the Olympic Stadium and the Aquatics Centre, it allows visitors to view the whole Olympic Park from two observation platforms. Orbit was designed by Turner-Prize winning artist Sir Anish Kapoor and Cecil Balmond of engineering Group Arup. Announced on 31 March 2010, it was expected to be completed by December 2011. The project came about after Mayor of London Boris Johnson and Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell decided in 2008 that the Olympic Park needed something extra. Designers were asked for ideas for an Olympic tower at least 100 metres high, and Orbit was the unanimous choice from proposals considered by a nine-person advisory panel. Kapoor and Balmond believed that Orbit represented a radical advance in the architectural field of combining sculpture and structural engineering, and that it combined both stability and instability in a work that visitors can engage with and experience via an incorporated spiral walkway. It has been both praised and criticised for its bold design, and has especially received criticism as a vanity project of questionable lasting use or merit as a public art project. The project was expected to cost £19.1 million, with £16 million coming from Britain's richest man, the steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal, Chairman of the ArcelorMittal steel company, and the balance of £3.1 million coming from the London Development Agency. The name ArcelorMittal Orbit combines the name of Mittal's company, as chief sponsor, with Orbit, the original working title for Kapoor and Balmond's design. The ArcelorMittal Orbit closed after the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, while the South Plaza area of the Park underwent reconstruction for its long-term legacy use as a public outdoor space. It re-opened to the public on 5 April 2014. The structure incorporates the world's tallest and longest tunnel slide, designed by Carsten Höller. The idea was originally envisioned by the London Legacy Development Corporation as a way to attract more visitors to the tower. The slide includes transparent sections to give a different perspective of the twisting red tower and was completed in June 2016. This follows an option to abseil down the tower, which was introduced in 2014.
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