Marble Arch Mound: London's newest attraction is a heap of earth

The Marble Arch Mound in London has opened to a fanfare of publicity -- but visitors say it is an unfinished, hollow mound of earth.

(CNN) — It's the home of Tower Bridge, the Houses of Parliament and that great big wheel spinning beside the Thames, but London's newest tourist attraction might just eclipse them all -- at least, in notoriety. The Marble Arch Mound, which opened July 26, has swiftly been branded the UK capital's worst site -- because rather than being the hoped-for sylvan glade of lush grass and trees sprouting from its sides, it's little more than a mound of earth. The $2.8 million development, which sits on the edge of Oxford Street, had promised sweeping views over London from its panoramic platform, 82 feet and 130 steps up.