London Eye

This London eye is London’s most fascinating recent creation!
The views are amazing and the experience absolutely unique!
Here is a little about it’s story, and also some curious facts:

The creators of the London eye are husband and wife architects David Marks and Julia Barfield. It was on their kitchen table in South London in 1993 that the first drawings of the London Eye were made. The couple had entered a competition to design a millennium landmark. No one won, and the competition was scrapped, but Marks and Barfield were convinced that their dream should be pursued. As Julia Barfield says: ‘From the beginning we wanted to create something uplifting - something that would delight…’

David and Julia began to piece the project together, soon attracting the attention of the London press. ‘As the project developed,’ says David Marks, ‘everyone was inspired with one objective - to create an exciting new way to see and understand one of the greatest cities on earth.

‘Soon, everyone realised the sheer scale of what they were attempting. It would be the largest observation wheel ever built and the only cantilevered structure of its kind in the world. It would also be the largest structure ever hoisted into a vertical position in one operation. Over 1,700 people in five countries would be involved in building it. The population of an entire alpine village would test the embarkation procedures. Almost every component and construction technique would have to be invented from scratch. Glass for the capsules would have to be double curved and laminated. And transportation of the components would take on a scale reminiscent of pyramid building: delivery would have to be timed to co-ordinate with tides in the River Thames, so that large parts could be safely negotiated under London’s bridges. Clearance under Southwark Bridge would be as little as 40 centimetres. One of the world’s tallest floating cranes would be needed to lift the massive quarter sections of the rim onto eight temporary platforms floating on the river. Each of the 32 passenger capsules would have to be designed to be just within the maximum width allowed on the French roads over which they would make their way to the English Channel and up the Thames. And it would all happen in just 16 months….

Today, the British Airways London Eye has become, quite literally, the way the world sees London. It is one of the most spectacular and popular attractions in the world, drawing visitors from far and wide. Its success is unquestionable, as is its popularity with tourists and Londoners alike. Yet it was conceived, designed and built against considerable odds. Of all the remarkable facts about the London Eye, perhaps the most astonishing is that it was ever built at all.
It took seven years and the skills of hundreds of people from five countries to make the London Eye a reality.

Interesting facts about the London Eye:

You can see around 40KM from the top as far as Windsor Castle on a clear day.
The London Eye carries 3.5 million customers every year. You would need 6,680 fully booked British Airways Boeing 747-400 jumbo jets to move that number of fliers!
The London Eye can carry 800 passengers per revolution - equivalent to 11 London red doubled-decker buses.
Each of the 32 capsules weighs 10 tonnes. To put that figure into perspective, it’s the same weight as 1,052,631 pound coins!
Each rotation takes 30 mins, meaning a capsule travels at a stately 26cm per second, or 0.9km (0.6 miles) per hour - twice as fast as a tortoise sprinting; allowing passengers to step on and off without the wheel having to stop.
The circumference of the wheel is 424m (1.392ft) - meaning that if it were unravelled, it would be 1.75 times longer than the UK’s tallest building One Canada Square.

The total weight of the wheel and capsules is 2,100 tonnes - or as much as 1,272 London black cabs!
The height of the London Eye is 135m (equivalent to 64 red telephone boxes piled on top of each other) making it the fourth tallest structure in London after the BT Tower, Tower 42 and One Canada Square in Canary Wharf.
The spindle holds the wheel structure and the hub rotates it around the spindle. At 23 meters tall, the spindle is around the size of a church spire and, together with the hub, weighs in at 330 tonnes: over 20 times heavier than Big Ben.
Have fun and go visit!

Kinky Sightseeing Kisses!