The London Eye

The Millennium Wheel or London Eye, was built to celebrate the millennium in London. At the time of building, it was the largest observation wheel in the world at 443-feet (135-metres), but larger ones have now been built in China and Singapore.

The first observation wheel was built in Chicago for the World’s Columbian Exposition in 1893. It became known as the Ferris wheel, after the designer, and the name has been synonymous with these wheels ever since.

The wheel carries 32 sealed and air-conditioned passenger capsules attached to its external circumference, each carrying 25 people. It rotates at 10-in (26-cm) per second (about 0.9-km/h (0.5-mph). One revolution takes about 30 minutes. The wheel usually does not stop to take on passengers: the rotation rate is so slow that you can easily walk on and off the moving capsules at ground level.

The London Eye is sponsored by British Airways and has become the most popular paid visitor attraction in the UK, visited by over 3.5 million people a year.

The architects of the London Eye are husband and wife team, Julia Barfield and David Marks. Winners of a competition for ideas to mark the Millennium, their design was considered to be the most imaginative. David and Julia wanted to present not just a monument, but something celebratory, that people could participate in and enjoy. David researched and developed the idea for a giant observation wheel and Julia found the ideal site by drawing a circle round London and finding the centre, Jubilee Gardens on the South Bank of the Thames.

The London Eye was built in The Netherlands by the company Hollandia. The wheel was constructed in sections which were floated up the Thames on barges and assembled lying flat on pontoons. Once the wheel was complete it was raised into an upright position by cranes, being lifted at 2 degrees an hour.

When you fly on the London Eye, well-known landmarks and buildings of central London are spread out in a great panorama before you. Look out for The Imperial War Museum; The Globe Theatre; The Oval Cricket Ground; The Tate Gallery; Westminster Abbey; The Houses of Parliament and Big Ben; The Tower of London; St. Paul's Cathedral; The National Portrait Gallery; Buckingham Palace; The British Museum and The Telecommunications Tower.

Big Ben fron the Eye by Misterweiss

The London Eye has already been used in numerous movies and films, one of which was the 2004 movie Thunderbirds. A scene shows Thunderbird 2 flying through London and landing next to the London Eye.