Talk:London Eye

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[edit] Official name

The official name for the London Eye is The British Airways London Eye. --Robert Brook

[edit] Photos

The photographs are a great addition. Thank you to whoever added them. I've been playing with the format (basically making the stations and external links appear below the photos) This should look ok on low and medium resolution screens at least. Can anyone say if it looks ok on high-res screens/other displays used to look at wiki? Pete 10:18 25 Jun 2003 (UTC)

Hi Pete, I am happy to read that you like my images :-) On my high resolution screen the new format does not look really good, there are some centimetres of empty space before the text goes on... I think there should be a better way, you can also put the images on another place in the article, if you want. I have just thrown them in there, you con reposition them as much as you like. Fantasy 11:07 25 Jun 2003 (UTC)

[edit] Houses of Parliament

Re: "Opposite Houses of Parliament" being removed.

Yes of course in the strictest sense it is not opposite the HoP. In the sense of trying to make a helpful article though, it is basically opposite, especially on the scale of the River Thames, which flows for twenty miles through central London. If a reader is sufficiently clueless about London not to know where the London Eye is, then a reference to County Hall is hardly likely to be helpful, though one about the Houses of Parliament might be. Thus I made a partial revert.
Oh and finally, the river runs north-south at that point, not east-west as suggested in the summary comment :). Pete/Pcb21 (talk) 12:07, 31 May 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Photos

Does nobody have a nice daylight photo of the whole wheel for the lead image? On a related note, this page is getting a little overburdened with images, so it will soon be time to move some into a gallery section. -- Solipsist 18:30, 24 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Done! - Adrian Pingstone 19:22, 24 Nov 2004 (UTC)
Maybe it would be useful if I summarised where I've put my own London Eye pics (from a short holiday in London two weeks ago):
Views of the wheel - London Eye, South Bank and Observation wheel.
Views from the wheel -Hungerford Bridge, Lambeth Bridge, Waterloo Bridge, Westminster Bridge, Palace of Westminster, River Thames and St. Margaret's, Westminster - Adrian Pingstone 19:42, 24 Nov 2004 (UTC)
That's great (and quick) - thanks. I've now rearranged the photos and moved some to a subpage so that they don't outweight the text. I hope you approve. -- Solipsist 21:15, 24 Nov 2004 (UTC)
Fine by me. Thanks for setting up the new page - Adrian Pingstone 22:13, 24 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I think there's still too many images. Nine is too many, especially for the relative length of the text. I'm going to take a few out and add them to the gallery, if its ok. --jeffthejiff(talk) 18:47, 30 October 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Ferris wheel or not

I've recently noticed changes in a couple of places as to whether the London Eye should be classed as a Ferris wheel or not. I'm fairly sure I've seen Marks & Barfield being interviewed and saying it is not a Ferris wheel. As I understand it, it is not correct to describe all observation wheels as Ferris wheels. The crucial distinction is that a Ferris wheel has suspended cars, whereas on the London Eye the cars (gondolas) counter-rotate on the rim of the wheel. -- Solipsist 3 July 2005 06:56 (UTC)

AFAIK a ferris wheel is suspended from two sides. The Millenium wheel (or rather: its axle) is only suspended from one side and therefore it is called something other than ferris wheel, but I am unsure about what it is really called. --Soylentyellow 20:54, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

The ferris wheel/observation wheel distinction seems decidedly artificial to me, and Ferris wheel seems to agree. FWIW, the Star of Nanchang (see [1]) has gondolas on the outside (observation wheel-y) but two support towers (ferris wheel-y), so which one is it? Jpatokal 11:51, 1 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] BA share sold.

In case no-one notices, BBC has announced today that BA has sold its share in the Eye. Hard to revise because the buyer is undisclosed. It's just worth bearing in mind for when we know more. Tarquin Binary 15:13, 10 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Anyone actually going to London

If anyone is actually going to London this may be helpful. The eye is rather expensive (I think about US$40 per person) and not particularly worth it. Right below the eye however is a wonderful arcade with bumper cars and the like. It is almost like an indoor amusement park. It is pretty cool. Not something you would go to London for but wonderful if you have kids going with you or are going with a group that wants to do the eye.

At the moment (9/4/6) the cost, if booked online, is :Adult £11.70, Child (5-15) £5.85, Under 5 free, Senior (60+)£9.00. Markb 08:50, 9 April 2006 (UTC)
How about putting THOSE prices on the main page? Will give the reader an idea of how much it costs to ride the Eye.


£11.70=US$40? Boy! Are you getting screwed on the exchange rate! ;=)

Interesting how you describe what I assume to be Namco (which is a little walk along but essentially under the eye) as cheap in relation to the eye. As a local 20-year old I have spent several hours at Namco and I can honestly say that the London Eye is money better spent. It's essentially a games arcade where each game costs 50-200p. Dodgems themself are 2 quid so that's just 6 rides until the cost of the London Eye is covered and I'm sure i could fit more rides in that 30 minute session than that!

[edit] masons?

the amazing london eye looks a lot like the free mason's symbol eh?

[edit] Contradictory

  • "The British Airways London Eye... is the first-built and largest observation wheel in the world..."
  • "The wheel is not the first of its kind"

Kaldari 22:37, 2 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Photo Order

I've changed the photo order. I put the featured picture first in the article. I thought that considering it's such a nice photo, it should be at the top. Is this OK?Xtrememachineuk 17:32, 15 July 2006 (UTC)

there's a photograph I added was blown away from the page. I personally think it's too crowdy. I suggest having one main photo and a gallery for the rest of the photos at the bottom. What do you guys think? Omernos 14:39, 30 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] External links

Recently anonymous editors, using a range of IPs, have been reinserting external links to two unofficial web sites, the-london-eye.com and the-london-eye.co.uk. They are often also deleting the link to the official web site at www.londoneye.com. I can see absolutely no value in offering links to the unofficial web sites - they are poorly designed, give no additional information and since they are also commercial they also fall foul of Wikipedia:spam.

We also don't need any links to sites offering photographs of the LondonEye - we've got plenty of photographs, many of them rather good, already on Wikipedia.

Apart from the official web site, the only other external links that I can imagine being useful would be something like news articles concerning the future of the wheel or information from the architects on engineering plans or the like. -- Solipsist 14:17, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

It is me who keeps putting the links back - I think it must just be that my IP is changing. Surely people have the right to decide themselves if the official site is all they need? I am aiming to increase the content of my site so that it will also be helpful to visitors. Is it you that is continually deleting my links? Can you not see that I want to keep them there? If I did not have to check wikipedia many times each day, maybe I would be able to improve my site so that you would think it was worthy of having a link.
If you actually had a look at the links, you would see that both link to the same page - it is a shame that you do not investigate something before just going ahead with your "great" idea. Have you tried telling Google that they should only have one, official, site do do with each subject? Maybe we should only have one "official" editor to edit topics. Freedom of choice...leave it up to the individual to decide where they want to go, please do not decide for them.
May I add that the only reason why I began to delete the official link (I did not do it to begin with) was because I could not see why my link should be deleted everytime - I was just re-adding my link to the list. So, in the end I decided to delete the official link when I had to put mine back on...time and time again. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Igloo01 (talk • contribs) 19:33, 2 August 2006. 20:30, 2 August 2006
Well thank you for discussing it now. I've tried leaving messages on the various IP user pages you have been using, but you may have missed them if your IP address kept changing - that's one of the advantages of using a named login account.
Now can I ask you to familiarize yourself with Wikipedia's policies on adding external links — Wikipedia:External links and Wikipedia:spam are a good starting point. Unfortunately you will see that you shouldn't be adding links to your own web site; that in general we don't support links to commercial sites, except where the article is directly about that site (for example there is a link to sainsbury.co.uk on the J Sainsbury page, but nowhere else); and also Wikipedia is not a link farm - we are not aiming to provide convenient links for people, we are aiming to write an encyclopedia.
You should also note, that Wikipedia is written by concensus. Our guidelines and policies are written by concensus. I'm not the only one who has been reverting your edits, other editors also agree that the links to your website should be reverted. I'm sorry to say, I cannot envisage any set of future circumstances in which the links to your website would be acceptable here. -- Solipsist 22:39, 2 August 2006 (UTC)
Firstly, I do not think I could be classed under Wikipedia:spam. However, after carefully reading about External Links, I can now see what I was doing was going against that - I apologise. I must emphasise though that I was not adding my link for commercial gain. I did, and still do, feel that people should have a choice of sites they can look at about the subject. I believe that it is one of the joys of having an online encyclopedia - the ease with which you can travel around using links which are constantly updated.
I hope you will not object if I put forward my link for addition to the page some time in the future - maybe after I have updated the content some more. I hope you will not hold this little blip on my behalf against me. --Igloo01 18:53, 3 August 2006 (UTC)
Sorry, I should of replied sooner, but the answer is - I doubt it. As long as the site seeks to sell tickets or carries advertising it will be deemed commercial. You also shouldn't be adding links to a web site that you are involved with. If the site is significant, someone else will add it. If you were to expand the site with new material, we would really rather you added the material here, under a GFDL license, so that inaccuracies can be corrected. On the whole, Wikipedia really does not want many links to external sites. -- Solipsist 11:37, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] The London Eye in film and television

In Johnny English, exactly which scene is set in one of the Eye's capsules? I don't remember any such scene. Torarin 11:09, 3 August 2006 (UTC)

After watching the film again I am equally bemused by this claim, would it not be right to remove this bullet point to prevent confusion? 2 September 06

Please add reference to the new Doctor Who series (2005) as the eye was a key part of the pilot.

[edit] Most popular tourist attraction?

This will probably lead to a ridiculous France vs. UK war but the Eiffel Tower page claims that it is the most popular tourist attraction in the world. 6,428,441 people visited the tower in 2005 and more than 200,000,000 since it's construction. Perhaps it might be an idea to get exact numbers to back up the London Eye claim since the Emporis reference doesn't give any. --Mgill 05:34, 4 December 2006 (UTC)

There is a reference, i'll add it. The Eiffel Tower is most popular in terms of total visitors, but the eye has more year on year. --w2ch00 18:43, 2 February 2007 (UTC)
Here is the reference on the Emporis page, scroll down to the bottom and you'll find it under "Facts" (near the bottom of that section). W2ch00 18:50, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Why 32 pods?

I have heard that the Eye contains 32 pods because there are 32 boroughs in London. I have no reference for this but wonder if anyone else does?

--Paulredfern1 11:27, 18 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Bride or Pride?

In the edit previous to the one I just did, the movie title "Bride and Prejudice" was "corrected" to "Pride and Prejudice". However, I'm wondering if this was a true correction or a proofreading error (such as the album sleeve-notes I once saw in which the properly-spelled "sine wave" was "corrected" to "sign wave"), because there is a Bollywood movie called "Bride and Prejudice" and I suspect that this, rather than a straightforward adaptation of the Jane Austen novel, may have been the one meant. Something for a more knowledgeable person to look into? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 193.122.47.170 (talk) 17:01, 25 February 2007 (UTC).

I've just looked at other Wikipedia pages, and it would seem that there was no 2004 "Pride and Prejudice" movie, although there was one in 2003 and another in 2005; but "Bride and Prejudice" was released in 2004. So it looks to me as if this edit was indeed a proofreading error, and "Bride" is the correct name. 193.122.47.170 17:12, 25 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Bigger Wheels?

In the intro, "until the opening of The Star of Nanchang in May 2006 (the record will in turn be broken by the Singapore Flyer in early 2008 when it becomes operational). ", but in History - "Plans have been announced to build a 170 m wheel on the Las Vegas Strip and a 185 m wheel dubbed "Giant Wheel" planned to open in 2008 in Berlin." Which should we be going with? Paulbrock 02:59, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] New owner

Tussauds has been bought out by Merlin Entertainment...article needs amending if anyone has time! See [2] Paulbrock 01:54, 25 May 2007 (UTC)


[edit] Author!

Author! Please come back and proofread and correct your sloppy work. And if necessary go back to school so you can write more correctly. Thank you.

[Note: this may only apply to the first section. The rest of the article is fine. But the first section seems to have been sabotaged by an imbecile.] —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 86.217.211.6 (talk • contribs) May 2007.

I've amended it so it's at least grammatically correct, but it still needs tweaking I think...Paulbrock 00:24, 6 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Why was Goldmember deleted?

OK, so the Eye's appearance in that is brief — but not as brief as its appearance in Order of the Phoenix; and as Harry Potter fans know, the latter is an anachronism as the Eye appears in a sequence which is supposed to be taking place in 1995. 86.145.170.171 18:05, 2 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Star of Nanchang

This article says that the Star of Nanchang is a ferris wheel, not an observation wheel. The Observation wheel article says that it's an observation wheel. Who's right? Corvus cornix 23:31, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] The London Eye in film and television

Is this section useful? Given the Eye's status as a landmark, given time this section will overwhelm the article. I'm not necessarily saying delete it but shouldn't it be restricted to something like "significant references"? Robertcornell68 08:44, 7 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Photo

Wouldn't you agree that the replacement photo (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:The_London_Eye%2C_from_Westminster_Bridge.JPG) shows the detail of the eye in better focus (yes, the other is in focus, but it's spinning, due to long exposure, so you can't see anything of the pods), it's of a higher resolution (to show the wheel's detail better), it shows where it is, it shows the normal front view, and the sky isn't as distracting as the blue-lit trees in the original (now displayed as leading photo) which take up 2/3 of the shot? --Evans1551 22:26, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

No, the proposed replacement's background is distracting. It's hard to tell what the subject of the photo is. The current photo is also regarded as special in other ways. — Aldaron • T/C 22:31, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] london eye

i loved the london eye i saw everythig when i went there with my clas 6m —Preceding unsigned comment added by 89.242.96.104 (talk) 16:55, 9 March 2008 (UTC)