Detective Shaw’s London: the London Eye

Leaving the parliament building behind us and walking along Victoria Embankment, our gaze is immediately caught by an enormous white Ferris wheel located on the opposite side of the Thames, between Westminster and Hungerford bridges: the London Eye.
It is one of London’s newest attractions. Built in 1999 and opened to the public in March 2000, the London Eye is the largest Ferris wheel in Europe and, until the completion of the Shard, it was also the highest point from which you can admire the city.

Leaning over the waters of the Thames, the London Eye is supported by an A-shaped structure, the tie rods of which are anchored over a small area of the Jubilee Gardens.
If we cross the river on Westminster Bridge and approach the wheel, we cannot help but raise our nose more and more as we get closer to it, in an attempt to embrace it entirely with our gaze. Although I have never boarded it (so far), in all my trips to London following its construction (the photos in this article were taken in 2008, except for the last one, which is from 2012) I found myself every time admiring it from below with a slight sense of vertigo.

The ticket office is located in the building almost in front (a little to the right) of the reception for boarding the cabins, in any case, given that it is the most popular attraction in the city (3.5 million of visitors in the year), it is advisable to book your ticket online, on the official website, thus also obtaining a small discount.
The duration of the ride in one of the thirty-two cabins (equipped with interactive guides), which move slowly enough to allow you to get on and off without stopping them, is thirty minutes in total. It is undoubtedly an exhilarating experience, provided that the weather conditions do not reduce visibility.

The London Eye is managed by Merlin Entertainment (the same one that manages Madame Tussauds, but also Gardaland in Italy!) and changes its official name every certain number of years (variable) acquiring from time to time that of its sponsor.

To get to the London Eye, the nearest Tube station is Waterloo, but Charing Cross, Embankment, and Westminster are quite close. The attraction also has a pier, the London Eye Pier, where boats from Thames Clippers and City Cruises stop.

The London Eye plays a very important role in the final book of the Detective Eric Shaw Trilogy. In addition to being located exactly on the opposite side of the Thames from the Curtis Green Building (new headquarters of New Scotland Yard), and therefore visible even from Eric’s office, the entire area in its immediate vicinity is the location of a dramatic action scene in “Beyond the Limit”, which involves one of the victims of the Plastic Surgeon, but also Eric, DI Miriam Leroux (Murder Investigation Team), Sergeant Mills (Murder Investigation Team) and PC Cora Patel (a new character). However, I cannot tell you more without ruining the surprise of discovering what will happen in this scene and, above all, how it will end.

At night, the London Eye becomes even more beautiful thanks to the coloured lights that illuminate the wheel and the inside of the cabins.