06/16
1. It took seven years and the skills
of hundreds of people from ve
countries to make the London Eye
a reality.
2. The residents of an alpine
village helped to test its boarding
procedures.
3. The design is similar to an enormous
bicycle wheel, with a central hub
and spindle connected to outer and
inner rims by cable spokes.
It is over 200 times larger than the
average bike wheel (and four times
wider than the dome of St Paul’s
Cathedral).
4. The 80 spokes laid together would
stretch for 6km – the distance from
Trafalgar Square to Canary Wharf.
5. The spindle which holds the wheel
structure is 23m long – the height
of nine classic London red
telephone boxes.
The Coca-Cola London Eye was
designed as a huge bicycle wheel
structure that is cantilevered –
supported on one side.
The London Eye uses enormous
‘A’ frame legs supported by
colossal foundations and tied
back by more cables anchored
underneath Jubilee Gardens.
A feat of design
and engineering
6. The hub and spindle weigh in at 330
tonnes – equivalent to 49 double
decker buses and 20 times heavier
than Big Ben – the bell inside St
Stephen’s Tower at the Houses
of Parliament.
7. Some 1,700 tonnes of British steel
were used in the construction of
the London Eye, which makes it
298 times heavier than all the top
London football teams (West Ham,
Arsenal, Tottenham, Chelsea,
Fulham and Charlton) combined.
8. The London Eye was shipped
up the River Thames by barge in
sections and assembled at the
South Bank. It took a week to lift it
from a horizontal position to the fully
vertical one we all know.
The technology employed had
previously been used to erect North
Sea oil rigs.
9. The total weight of the wheel and
capsules is 2,100 tonnes – or as
much as 1,272 London black cabs.
10. The operation had to be
co-ordinated carefully with the
tides to ensure that the river was
low enough to t everything
underneath London’s
bridges. It was a squeeze: the
clearance under Southwark
Bridge was just 40cm in
some places.
11. All 32 capsules were xed
onto the wheel in just
eight days. A decade later
they were improved, to
make their heating and
ventilation systems more
ecient and environmentally
friendly. The upgraded capsules
are now expected to last at
least another decade.
The London Eye is often mistakenly
called a Ferris wheel. This is not
the case; rst, the capsules are
completely enclosed and climate
controlled; second, the capsules are
positioned on the outside of the wheel
structure and are fully motorised; and
third, the entire structure is supported
by an A-frame on one side only; making
it the world’s tallest cantilevered
observation wheel.