Tickets on sale for record-breaking slide wrapped around London's ArcelorMittal Orbit tower
by Kim Megson | 03 May 2016
Tickets are now on sale for the world’s tallest and longest slide, which will open inside Anish Kapoor’s ArcelorMittal Orbit London tower on 24 June 2016.
Known simply as The Slide, the attraction is a collaboration between artist Kapoor and designer Carsten Höller.
The 178m (590ft) helter skelter, designed with Bblur Architects, will start 76m (249 ft) above the ground and includes transparent polycarbonate sections allowing riders to look at the surrounding Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park as they descend.
The Slide will twist and turn 12 times, including a tight corkscrew section named the ‘bettfeder’ – after the German word for ‘bedspring.’ It ends with a 50 metre straight run to the ground. Riders are expected to hit speeds of up to 15 miles per hour during the 40-second trip from top to bottom.
Construction is being led by Buckingham Group Constructing using specialist abseilers provided by CAN Structures, with structural engineering work provided by BuroHappold.
Slide manufacturer Wiegand and British firm Interkey are also involved in connecting the attraction’s 30 steel sections, using a complex procedure involving ropes and pulleys that has been specially designed for the project.
Höller, said: “Since 1999, I have built a number of slides, both freestanding and attached to buildings, but never onto another artwork as in this case.
“Now that the two artworks will be intertwined with each other, I see it as one of these double situations that I am so interested in. I like it when a sense of unity is reached in two separate entities, and you can find this thought to repeatedly occur in my work.”
Users must be at least 1.3m in height and weigh under 149kg to ride the slide. Tickets cost £5, in addition to a ticket to the ArcelorMittal Orbit.
Carsten Höller ArcelorMittal Orbit tower Anish Kapoor The Slide Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park London design
Transparent polycarbonate sections allow riders to look at the surrounding Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park as they descend Credit: Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park
30 Jul 2015
World's longest slide to be wrapped around London's Orbit Tower
11 May 2012
£22.7m ArcelorMittal Orbit unveiled at London's Olympic Park
31 Oct 2011
ArcelorMittal Orbit reaches full height
Tickets are now on sale for the world’s tallest and longest slide, which will open inside Anish Kapoor’s ArcelorMittal Orbit London tower on 24 June 2016. Known simply as The Slide, the attraction is a collaboration between artist Kapoor and designer Carsten Höller. The 178m (590ft) helter skelter, designed with Bblur Architects, will start 76m (249 ft) above the ground and includes transparent polycarbonate sections allowing riders to look at
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