The Heights of Olympia

A new street has opened in Kensington, 50 feet off the ground. It's on top of the roof of the Olympia exhibition halls. It's open to the public so you can totally go up there and walk through. And it's utterly extraordinary, in a nakedly commercial way. [12 photos] Olympia has been a building site for the best part of a decade, and still is in places, but the wraps have just come off the premier new feature which is a massive development on top of what was previously here. The owners thought "where can we add new stuff on a limited footprint" and decided the best place was on the roof, then went full turbo getting as much up there as possible. Restaurants and bars, two hotels, a music venue and a theatre have all been perched on top, not yet all open but Mexican-inspired bites and Self Esteem are already an option. My gob was well and truly smacked. You get up there on a whopping outdoor escalator which is the first WTF moment. There you are walking down the side of the tube station…