Olympic park slide: What it's like to ride the ArcelorMittal Orbit

Twists, turns… and a little terror as Standard is first to take plunge down 178-metre Orbit tower slide

The world’s longest and tallest tunnel slide opens tomorrow at the ArcelorMittal Orbit — and the Standard was the first to try it out.

After 178 metres of twists, turns, thumps and jumps, the verdict? Anyone expecting a gentle, sight-seeing experience will be disappointed: the slide that plunges through Sir Anish Kapoor’s sculpture in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park is closer to a rollercoaster minus the seatbelt.

Sitting in the helter skelter-style mat dressed in fetching head gear and shoulder protectors while peering down at the 76m drop is scary enough. This is nothing compared with the terror experienced when you shuffle up to the edge of the slide and push off into the abyss.

What follows are among the most terrifying — but admittedly exhilarating — 30 seconds of my life. Staff say it will take 45 seconds, but it is definitely quicker than that. They also suggest you will reach 15mph. Trust me, it feels more like 115mph as the slide loops around 12 sharp bends, one stomach-churning drop and a tight corkscrew named “the bettfeder” — bedspring in German.

Daredevil: Lizzie Edmonds hurtles to the bottom of the ArcelorMittal Orbit sculpture in 30 seconds on the slide, which she likens to a “rollercoaster minus the seatbelt”
Alex Lentati

The slide, designed by Belgian artist Carsten Höller, finishes with a 50m home straight, where visitors pick up one final burst of speed before — finally — coming to a stop.

The Orbit slide, in pictures

1/6

Peter Tudor, the park’s director of visitor services, confirmed that the attraction was not for the faint-hearted. “The slide is part of our commitment to deliver new and exciting attractions to the park and is another reason to visit the park,” he said. “It caters to the more daredevil audience and the adrenaline junkies.”

But he provided some comfort — he consulted experts about the number of twists and turns people can endure before being sick. He said: “We were told that too many turns in one direction would make one’s stomach lurch and lead to nausea.”

Advance tickets for the ArcelorMittal Orbit and The Slide cost £15 for adults, £10 for children and £46 for a family of four.

Follow Going Out on Facebook and on Twitter @ESgoingout

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in