The Giant Wheel Of Time
By Amar Chandel

IT is said that nothing much changes in the conservative city of London—except the prices, of course, which are always on a vertical ride. But the advent of the new millennium has altered the skyline of the city suddenly.

The most visible difference has been brought about the "giant’s wheel" that you see in the picture. Everyone thinks that it’s a contraption for children’s entertainment of the kind one sees in fairs and exhibitions. Actually, it is a marvel of technology. The millennium wheel put up by British Airways will be the world’s highest observation wheel offering breathtaking views across London, from a height of — hold your breath — 450 ft. above the Thames river. That makes it about as tall as a 45-storey building. The brainchild of London architects David Marks and Julia Barfield is situated close to Westminster bridge. The £ 19 million contraption has 32 hi-tech capsules with a capacity of 25 passengers each. It will offer a completely new and spectacular way of seeing some of the capital’s famous landmarks. Don’t worry about the dizziness that giant wheels bring about. It will spin so slowly that it will complete one revolution in about half-an-hour.

No, it will not be operational to herald the New Year. The completion date will be somewhere in January or February, 2000. This will carry up to two million riders annually over five years before moving to another site. The ride on London’s fourth tallest structure will set the tourist back by £ 6.95 (£ 4.80 for children).

Surprisingly, most of the millennium attractions like this "London Eye" will be ready only during the year and not on the first of January, 2000. The most ambitious of these is The Dome currently under construction on the Greenwich peninsula. It will contain 14 attractions arranged in a circle around a central performance area. In the centre of the Dome there will be a slow with 200 live performers and state of the art visual effects, which will play several times a day. The most promising of the £ 758 million theme zones is the one called Body. It will offer a walk through the world’s largest representation of the human form, with a chance to see how the body works.

In fact the entire waterfront of the mighty Thames is being given a multi-million-pound facelift. Among these is a £ 14 million bridge linking the Tate Gallery of Modern Art at bankside with St. Paul’s Cathedral. It has a remarkably sleek design and is the first pedestrian-only bridge to be built this century. The showpiece of contemporary architecture, due to be completed in April, is a marriage of architecture, engineering and culture that will join the north and south banks of the river.

Almost all of London’s tourist attractions are stacked on the north side. The result is that traffic snarls are a daily feature. (The joke is that the average speed at which one moved during the days of horse-drawn carriages was eight miles per hour. Now in the age of cars, the speed has improved dramatically to eight-and a-half miles per hour!). So, the stress now is on the environmental upgrading of the south side and the river walk from Black friars Bridge to London Bridge. It was to be completed by October. But right now most of the area is dug up — delays are not an Indian monopoly, you see. The £ 1.7 million facelift should make the Millennium Mile a worthwhile experience. Substantial parts of the riverside walkway are being demolished and re-built in keeping with a coordinated design. The attractions here include Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre and the Tate Gallery of Modern Art, to be housed in an abandoned power station. More than the 40-odd attractive sights, what is noticeable is the aggressive advertisement campaign through which these are being marketed.