The Anish Kapoor designed tower will sit in London's Olympic park and, standing at 115 metres, will be nearly 10 metres taller than the Big Ben clock tower. It is being hailed as London's answer to the Eiffel tower and aims to make the Olympics site a permanent visitor attraction.

The Arcelormittal Orbit, named after steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal who is partially funding the project, consists of a continuous looping lattice of tubular steel which visitors will be able to climb. The basic structure is described as 'a square rotated in space at 45 degrees' and will include a viewing platform, spiral staircase, lift and restaurant.

Mittal, Chairman and CEO of ArcelorMittal, will fund up to £16million of the £19.1 million project, with the outstanding £3.1 million provided by the London Development Agency.

Kapoor said one of his references was the Tower of Babel. "There is a kind of medieval sense to it of reaching up to the sky, building the impossible. A procession, if you like. It's a long winding spiral: a folly that aspires to go even above the clouds and has something mythic about it."

"He has taken the idea of a tower and transformed it into a piece of modern British art", said Boris Johnson. "It would have boggled the minds of the Romans. It would have boggled Gustave Eiffel."

The plan is for work to begin soon with a completion date of December 2011.