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What is it?
The curly-wurly red scaffolding tower lords it over the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park from its position right alongside the Olympic Stadium. Designed by the artist Anish Kapoor and structural engineer Cecil Balmond, it stands 114.5m (376ft) tall – with lifts (and a 455-step staircase) up to two platforms from which look out on The Shard, St Paul’s and the Wembley arches. There are also two of Kapoor's entertaining distorting mirrors inside and some newly installed digital telescopes so that you can get closer to the views. Since 2017 it’s also been home to the world’s longest tunnel slide.
Welsh adventure brand Zip World recently took over operations of the site, investing £2.6 million in the tower and working with local planning authorities to open a ‘first-of-its-kind adventure’.
Why go?
Built to mark the London 2012 Olympics, the Orbit is the UK’s largest public sculpture. It was projected to see around 350,000 visitors per year but since opening has only had 1.2 million.
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