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Water feature: artist’s impression of how the new-look fountains for Marble Arch could help to lift the area |
Makeover for Marble Arch: Fountains and landscaping to breathe life into famous monument
THE water fountains in Marble Arch will flow for the first time in a decade after a major project to spruce-up the famous monument was approved.
Three jet-powered bronze fountains and special lighting displays are included in the £1.5million plans revealed yesterday (Thursday) from Westminster City Council.
The lawn around the arch will be re-landscaped with trees, plants and benches and Portland Stone paving laid.
Transport for London will replace the subways beneath the island – currently surrounded by four lanes of traffic – and pedestrian crossings will make the arch easier to access.
Council leader Colin Barrow said: “A year ago you had some condemned subways, some fountains that didn’t work and there was a certain amount of graffiti about. This is an iconic space. It would not have been allowed to happen in Paris.”
The design of Marble Arch is based on the triumphal Arch of Constantine in Rome. The current fountains were installed in the 1960s but stopped working in the mid-1990s and in 2003 were filled and turned into soil planters. |
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