WHEEL OF FORTUNE

The London Eye at 25

- By Josh White

IT WAS THE pipe dream that transformed the capital’s skyline — and it cost only £67 to get the project rolling.

Celebrating the 25th anniversary of its opening today, the success of the London Eye has spawned copycats in Dubai, Las Vegas and China, while Mumbai is now planning its own version.

Initially only expected to last five years, to this day it continues to attract more than three million visitors a year.

A new short film “Turning 25: London’s Eye” features the likes of actors David Harewood and Russell Tovey narrating heartfelt stories from Londoners about what the Eye means to them.

Through a combination of archival and contemporary footage, it illustrates how London and the Eye, now nearly as iconic as Big Ben and St Paul’s Cathedral, have evolved together.

One of the Eye’s architects, Julia Barfield, 72, revealed that the germ of the idea came from her “partner in life and work” David Marks, back in the early 1990s.

Speaking from her south London home ahead of the film’s release, she recalled: “I said to him, well, that’s a great idea — let’s put it in the centre of London!

“If you draw a circle around Greater London, you'll find its centre is virtually there, on the South Bank.

“Historically that’s where the Festival of Britain was, and it’s by the river, which is a key reason why London is where it is.”

While the Festival of Britain brought optimism to Britain’s post-war economy in the summer of 1951, the area where the once iconic Dome of Discovery and Skylon had stood became neglected once again.

“There was also a statistic that one-and-a-half million people used to go halfway across Westminster Bridge, take a picture of the Houses of Parliament, and then go back to the north of the river,” Julia continues.