How unfortunate. The Sphere works in Vegas because it’s a grand spectacle amongst a city based on dopamine. Plopping it down in London is random and would presumably lose its playful video style.
Important to note it's not planned for Central London, but Stratford, where it makes a bit more sense, as it's a commercial hub with huge shopping malls and modern developments.
It has a shopping mall (singular) and is surrounded by tons and tons of residential buildings. Seems odd to drop a giant sphere and 60k tourists in such a residential heavy area.
Two shopping centres.
Not sure it makes sense to build this thing so far away from where the tourists normally go
There is no space in central (essentially the area bounded by the Circle line stretching down to Elephant and Castle). Lots of these developments happen in East London which has tons of brownfield land that used to be docks and industry. This is what happened to Canary Wharf and what they have been trying to do with North Greenwich and the Millenium Dome, and Newham and the Olympics. Stratford has loads of land and six train lines run through it (Central and Jubilee, North London, Great Eastern, DLR, Elizabeth) so it seems like the kind of place they would pick. Modern London isn't known for sustainable or sympathetic development. Go to Lewisham town centre and see how the new age tower blocks look completely out of kilter with the surrounding environment.
It's main purpose would be as an event venue where people would travel there deliberately rather than as a sightseeing item, and Stratford is a travel hub with connections to all other travel hubs in London and by extension the rest of the UK.