dan barker Profile picture
Jul 26, 2021 16 tweets 11 min read Read on X
I went to the Marble Arch Mound today. It cost £2 million to build, and today was launch day, but it was still quite quiet.

Here is a short thread with info.

First, the original plan drawings and the marketing description do not quite match reality.
These plans never match reality, but it feels like they could probably clean the area up a bit.

It also seems the team who planned it perhaps designed it in Winter and forgot about the trees already in the area, which change the impression of it vs the plans.
I'd joked before that it cost 6p per step to climb it, as the 'fast track' price was £8.

That seems to have dropped to £6.50, meaning it is a more affordable 5p per step to climb the 130ish steps. (the marketing info describes this as an experience of the 'great outdoors')
Maybe it will get busy, but the idea of fast track tickets seems odd, as - even nearing sunset on launch day - it was very quiet.
I said before I thought it was odd they would do this. Marble Arch is a very famous landmark, why build a temporarily landmark overshadowing it?

Perhaps add lights to the Arch itself like Tate Britain if the idea is to increase footfall. But it seems odd to need something else.
The info trailing the 'mound' spoke of "a spectacular 25 metre tall viewpoint that gives visitors striking views over London and the park".

In fact you can't really see the park, as I presume it was designed in Winter, and Summer has filled the view with trees.
To be fair, there is a narrow gap in the trees where you can see a bit of the park, but the foreground is somewhat less pretty. And looking East to the park, rather than South, you overlook an odd area full of rubble. I suppose that could be described as "striking views".
The press info also said the deck would offer "360-degree views down Oxford Street and into the park".

Again, a tree obscures Oxford St (perhaps they thought it would be chopped down? It does not appear in the plans). Albeit you can see up the Edgware Road, constructed in 43AD.
And you can see down Park Lane, and toward the London Eye in the distance.

And actually the other way you can see the BT tower, behind the construction and the old hotels at that end of Oxford Street.
The viewing deck itself is basically like the top of a complicated scaffold, as that is what the entire Mound is built from.

There are some customer support people up there, in case you drop your phone down the scaffold perhaps, or to give you bits of info.
The marketing info describes the journey back from the top by saying 'visitors will descend into the heart of the Mound...'

That is one of the more interesting bits - basically the inside of a 25m enormous scaffold, dotted with a few trees.
I found it odd they didn't make more of the interior, but think they meant to - the info describes a 'hollowed out space that will be used as a café, shop and exhibition space'.

Instead you find an emptyish storage area.

Perhaps it is unfinished, hence all that rubble outside.
There's also apparently a light show of some sorts, also not there at the moment, which may explain some of the random cables scattered around.
All in all a strange experience compared to the sales pitch. I think they oversold it a bit, and they should update the website to downgrade expectations.

I know the price of scaffolding has shot up, & labour is harder to come by, so odds have risen against them, but still...
Marble Arch itself, originally designed by John Nash as an entrance arch to Buckingham Palace, could have been given some much needed attention, rather than literally overshadowing it with a pile of scaffolding.
In summary: I enjoyed it. More as you might enjoy a bad statue of Christiano Ronaldo, or a car park Santa's Grotto, with dogs pretending to be reindeer, than as a dazzling spectacle.

As long as you go with that expectation it is ok - just a shame it cost 2 million pounds.

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More from @danbarker

Jun 20
The ‘Assisted Dying Bill’ is on the front page of many newspapers, and at the top of most news websites today.

It may feel like it has got to this stage organically, but much of its success is due to an extremely strong marketing campaign from one organisation - Dignity in Dying - some in public, some less immediately visible, spending six figures on average each month to make it happen.

Whether you are for the Bill, or against it, it is worth knowing a little about how things like this work, and the influence of marketing on lawmaking in the UK today.

Here is a thread summarising just a few of the marketing tactics used to achieve this, from the outside looking in...Image
Firstly: What is 'Dignity in Dying'?

- Dignity in Dying is not a charity, it is a limited company. They do not aim to make a profit - instead they aim to use the money they make (some of which is large donations, some a few pounds each month) to change the law

- Dignity in Dying used to be called the Voluntary Euthanasia Society, and changed names a number of times over their history

- In the last available accounts they spent over £100,000 average every month on campaigning to achieve Assisted Dying legislation

- They also have a ‘sister charity’ (Compassion in Dying). Many of the team, and the marketing experts on their boards, work across both of these organisations.

- At the same time Keir Starmer was elected PM, they appointed a new Chair who had worked directly with him for several years

- They are also behind much of the polling you see telling you how much people are in favour of Assisted Dying, and if you email the All Party Parliamentary Group on 'Choice at the End of Life', you are actually emailing Dignity in Dying

Without Dignity in Dying's work, it is likely the issue would not even be in parliament.Image
As one illustration of just how influential Dignity in Dying is, here is the information on the All Party Parliamentary Group on 'Choice at the End of Life'.

You may have seen the MPs listed here (red circle 1) talking about Assisted Dying. But: You have possibly not seen them explaining that their group's secretary, its point for enquiries, and essentially its funder (through benefit in kind) is Dignity in Dying itself.Image
Read 19 tweets
Oct 14, 2023
I went to take a look at the 'Palestine' protest in London today.

I guess I've seen more than 100 demos of one sort or another in London.

Most banners at this one were from either Socialist Worker, or 'Friends of Al Aqsa', which was formed by the optician @Ismailadampatel. Image
I asked various people what the Socialist Worker/Palestine connection was and even some people carrying 'Socialist Worker' branded signs did not to know. The Socialist Party had various recruitment gazebos at the start of the route too, so I asked there. Image
It felt slightly odd that they were using a demonstration against military action in Palestine so explicitly to try and recruit new members.

The man on the stand said the link was 'anti imperialism', and they recruit there as people are open to anti-capitalist movements. Image
Read 15 tweets
Apr 30, 2023
Here is a very short thread on this news story, and how the story has become bigger than it probably deserves to be:

If you read the text the BBC put out here, it says "Public *asked* to swear allegiance to King Charles"

That's not quite the case... Image
If you dig into it a bit, you find that strangely the news article itself switches the word 'asked' to 'invited'.

Those are pretty similar, but 'invited' is a slightly weaker word. Image
The word 'Public' also exaggerates the difference between 'invited' and 'asked':

'Public invited to attend gathering at parliament square' is different to 'Public asked to attend gathering at parliament square'.

(One means 'anyone may', one means 'everyone should')
Read 11 tweets
Sep 18, 2022
We decided to walk 'The Queue' today, but the wrong way: from the finish to the start.

Here is a short thread of photos, from the gates in front of Parliament Square back to the park in Bermondsey where people collect their wristbands to join the queue...
The exit is actually an odd spot - people leave, get asked if they're ok by Samaritans (a nice idea), and have to either force through the crowds of Whitehall, or wait to cross to the relative quiet of the square.
Here's the final outdoor bit of the queue - where people go through security, under the windows of Parliament, after they've looped through Victoria Towers Garden.
Read 24 tweets
May 10, 2022
On the value of proof reading, and unintended consequences:

There is an NFT project called Azuki. A month ago it would cost you around 34eth to buy one, which at the time was about $100k. Even at the current lows of the crypto market, they were selling at 25eth a few days ago...
As the crypto market has hit a rough patch, one of the team decided to write an article to talk about ups and downs, and that the way out of a crisis is to keep building.

Obviously, they didn't get it proof read too widely.
The blog post revealed - which the writer seemed to think fine - that the team had been involved in several 'rugs' (projects where other people had invested cash, and the team had just abandoned the project, pulling the rug on it).
Read 9 tweets
May 9, 2022
What an inspiring person.

The fund has just passed £500,000 (plus gift aid).

justgiving.com/campaign/Bowel…
This has now passed £600,000.

Worth reading the message, if you have not already.
And... this has now passed £1 million.

justgiving.com/campaign/Bowel…
Read 6 tweets

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