"The Athenaeum" wrote that climbing the monument's stairs could be dangerous, and "The Art Union" condemned the staircase as "dreadfully narrow and inconvenient". "The Civil Engineer and Architect's Journal" believed that those who ascended the monument would "have to promenade somewhat after the fashion of crows in a gutter", and suggested that the architects ought to have provided a terrace on the roof of the monument, accessible by a wider staircase. "The Athenaeum" expressed confusion at the absence of a statue or commemoration of the Earl of Durham, believing that "although it may not yet be definitely settled what it is to be, something must surely be intended".