River Thames in London, looking downstream from the the London Eye.
St Paul’s is visible in the distance on the right, Royal Festival Hall centre right foreground. Waterloo Bridge prominent on the left, and right close by on the left, you can see the cable stays of the Golden Jubilee bridge.
March 12th, 2005, 6:15:16 pm
Sorry about the slight mismatch down the middle – it’s two pictures stitched together, both long exposures (hand held) and of course the Eye had moved a bit between the two shots.
The Eye was originally only given planning permission for five years. It was intended to be dismantled thereafter. It would have been a travesty to pull it down. It’s fabulous.
Its long-term future is an interesting question, though. In the medium term, it’ll get looked after; I'm sure it’s highly profitable. But things never last forever. Maybe people will eventually lose interest, or it’ll fall into disrepair for one reason or another. Eventually it’ll become unsafe. Demolishing it will be interesting exercise, especially if it’s all seized up. Or if it’s simply left there, eventually it’ll actually fall down. Interesting prospect – except for anyone who’s underneath at the time.
Same goes for tower blocks, of course, and skyscrapers. And worst of all, nuclear power stations and nuclear fuel reprocessing facilities.
©Clive K Semmens 2005