The Las Vegas Sphere is incredible… but please don’t let them build one in front of my home

An enormous, glowing, orb-shaped music venue that’s taller than St Paul’s Cathedral could soon land right on my doorstep, says east London resident Andrew Nix. But that’s not the only reason it shouldn’t go ahead

Stratford resident Andrew Nix, with his dog, Vader: a ‘hulking, floodlit’ MSG Sphere music venue could be sited 50 metres from his balcony (Andrew Nix)

Right now, I’m looking out of my living room window at a triangle of empty land in Stratford, east London. It’s been fenced off ever since it was last used, as a coach park during the 2012 Olympic Games.

Now, it has been earmarked for a giant, state-of-the-art music arena shaped like an illuminated crystal ball whose exterior is the world’s highest-resolution wraparound LED screen.

Building it here would be a disaster.

If the MSG Sphere gets the go-ahead, the resulting “landmark” would be taller than St Paul’s Cathedral and the Statue of Liberty, and its enormous exterior would be lit up for around 18 hours a day with advertising. It would be a sister venue to the one that opened with some fanfare by U2 in Las Vegas last month. There, the Sphere has been built in the desert. In Stratford, it would be surrounded by hundreds of flats.

Take the view from my balcony. The classic “London skyline” would be obscured by this hulking monstrosity barely 50 metres away, its throbbing brightness filling my entire field of vision. In fact, the Sphere will be so big, I’ll have to walk down the road to be able to see it in its entirety.

For now, my home – part of the New Garden Quarter complex near the Westfield shopping centre – is flooded with natural light. Once the Sphere is built, if between the hours of 6am and 11pm I dare open the blackout blinds – the ones I’ve been offered by way of compensation for the “inconvenience” of living in the blaze of nuclear glare – it will be like staring directly into the Piccadilly Circus ad hoarding.

When we bought our flat three years ago, I knew nothing of the plan to build the Sphere on our doorstep. The estate agent said the vacant land was probably going to be a school. A school would have been noisy, but I’d have been happy with that. It’s certainly preferable to having revellers at a 22,000-seater venue crashing through our communal gardens.

It’s a nice spot, with a children’s playground, soft planting and low lighting. With the Sphere acting as a giant floodlight until 11pm every night, its constant, eerie glow will kill off the planting. It’ll also make us a destination for groups going to the Sphere, somewhere to meet and preload on supermarket booze beforehand. And afterwards? I dread to think.

If you’ve ever seen local streets after a football match, with cans and bottles strewn everywhere, and people peeing in your bushes because they don’t fancy the queue for the loo in the venue – that’s what I and other residents of this busy, residential part of Stratford will have to look forward to.

As it stands, Stratford station – already the fifth busiest in the country – couldn’t cope with that many extra people every day, so the “plan” is to direct thousands down another residential road, to the tiny Elizabeth Line station at nearby Maryland. Drivers of the hundreds of trains that pass through Stratford every day have already suggested the glow from this ridiculous billboard will impair their ability to see. On safety grounds alone, how can it be built here?

I admit what I’ve seen of the Sphere in Las Vegas looks impressive – but no one is going to be able to take full advantage of such a venue in Stratford because it would be too hemmed in by all the buildings that would surround it. If you ever fly from London City airport, the views will be wicked – not so much for those of us on the ground.

Another thing I take issue with is the mayor of London’s much-vaunted campaign for clean air. Building the Sphere will require a reputed 280 HGVs a week to rattle past my balcony. I, and my hundreds of neighbours, won’t be able to open windows during the years of construction because of all the fumes. Mayor Khan, tell me how is this acceptable?

I don’t mind having another concert venue in Stratford. The Abba Arena, which seats 3,000, is the right sort of size, is visually pleasing and is in a relatively empty part of the Olympic Park. The Sphere is in no way suitable for its situation.

If it is approved in the coming months, by either the mayor or Michael Gove, the levelling up minister –the last two people with authority to cancel the project – what are my options? I will look at selling up. We’ve all been told our flats will skyrocket in price after the Sphere opens, but I have my doubts. For the last 12 months, the value of three-beds in the complex has been steady, at around £750,000. But the rental cost has gone up dramatically, from £2,800 a month to nearer £3,500. Whether that can be maintained once construction starts is difficult to say.

I could rent out the place as an Airbnb to those going to a gig, and move in with my mum while I look to buy elsewhere. But what does all this do to the local community? I don’t really want to move. My partner and I have spent three years building a home, and it’s not somewhere we’re ready to leave.

The reason we moved here was that we loved the feel of the area. Stratford is full of families like us, where kids play in the street with their pets or scrawl on pavements with chalk. There’s a lovely atmosphere, and it’s a great place to start a family.

The Sphere would block out all of that.

Have your say: Should the proposed MSG Sphere arena be built next to homes in Stratford, east London? Or do you have a better idea for a location? Let us know your thoughts in the comments box below…