The London Eye stands 135 meters high on the western end of Jubilee Gardens, on the South Bank of the River Thames. After a nice ride up and down the British Airways London Eye the time came to take some shots. Decided to go with a Black and White approach for both of the shots to give the “Eye” the impact it has on the banks of the river.
Sir Richard Rogers, winner of the 2007 Pritzker Architecture Prize, wrote of the London Eye in a recent book about the project:
“The Eye has done for London what the Eiffel Tower did for Paris, which is to give it a symbol and to let people climb above the city and look back down on it. Not just specialists or rich people, but everybody. That’s the beauty of it: it is public and accessible, and it is in a great position at the heart of London.”
Designed by architects David Marks, Julia Barfield, Malcolm Cook, Mark Sparrowhawk, Steven Chilton, Frank Anatole and Nic Bailey, the wheel carries 32 sealed and air-conditioned passenger capsules attached to its external circumference. Each capsule holds approximately 25 people, who are free to walk around inside the capsule, though seating is also provided. It rotates at 26 cm per second (about 0.9 km/h) so that one revolution takes about 30 minutes.
