AMIT ROY IN LONDON The London Eye and (below) a view from one of its capsules. Pictures by Amit Roy
Here’s a bit of intelligence: 443ft (135m) above terra firma is high indeed, especially if you are not enamoured of heights. The London Eye, located next to Waterloo railway station on the South Bank of the River Thames, is not even half an hour from my home. But although it opened to the public as far back as March 2000 to mark the end of one millennium and the beginning of another, I got to go on it for the first time only last week — for which I have Mamata Banerjee to thank.
Since she is said to be toying with the idea of building a replica of the London Eye in Calcutta — the one in London cost more than £50m (about Rs 364 crore) to construct and has an annual maintenance bill running into many millions of pounds — I thought the least I could do was check out this revolution on her behalf.
I am sure the London Eye will be included in the “very good programme” that Jeremy Browne, the British foreign office minister who met Mamata in Calcutta in early July, has promised should she feel inclined to take up his invitation to visit London.
London has enjoyed some very sunny days recently but, as luck would have it, on the one evening I picked, the skies filled with dark clouds and it started raining heavily.
“The rain won’t affect the operation of the London Eye,” I was reassured when I checked.
Just when you think you have soared into the skies and cannot go any higher, you look up and see three more capsules above you. Though I wouldnÂ’t like to claim I suffer from acrophobia, at a certain vulnerable point, your legs do start behaving a little like jelly.
This irrational fear of being suspended above London is rendered all the greater by the children running round the transparent capsule, leaning against the sides and generally having the time of their lives. In case you have imbibed generously of a bottle or two of champagne — yes, you can hire a capsule for a party of 25 or even get married on board — there is a notice which warns: “Do not lean against the doors.”
Next to me a young Sikh couple were enjoying the romance of the ride. A full rotation of the wheel takes 30 minutes but when you are poised at the top of the turn, time seems to pass very slowly.
Near me there was a little girl of five or six who will probably become a brilliant geography student one day — she was trying to match the attractions marked on a circular map she was holding against the window with what she could actually see. It is said that on a clear day you can see up to 40km or as far as Windsor Castle.
Below me, I could spot what looked like toy trains entering and leaving Charing Cross railway station. A little further along on the Thames Embankment is the famous Savoy Hotel, which contains the “American Bar” where a black pianist used to croon As time goes by from Casablanca .
Further along is the Shell Building and Somerset House before we come to the Palace of Westminster, which, on this occasion, looked like an impressionist painting because of the softening effect of the driving rain.
At the top of the turn you see the Thames, with all its bridges — Westminster, Lambeth, Vauxhall on one side — and Hungerford, Waterloo, Blackfriars and Southwark on the other — stretched out before you with all the bends in the river. I imagine the Ganges in full flow in the middle of a monsoon storm would look just as magical.
A possible location for a Calcutta Eye could be near Bagbazar ghat, a brother-in-law of mine in Calcutta has suggested. “You will be able to see the bend in the Hooghly and greenery all along the river. And you will be able to see Belur Math and a few of the temples around there and obviously most of Calcutta.”
Cocooned inside my capsule and twisting a little to the left, I could make out the Oval cricket ground. Below me directly is Waterloo railway station. What you do see out of the window is the criss-cross of the London EyeÂ’s white steel tubing contrasting against the black of the clouds. The capsule next to ours looms up dramatically like something out of a science fiction movie. In the distance I can pick out the glistening dome of St PaulÂ’s Cathedral, which had once dominated the London skyline. This is where Prince Charles married 19-year-old Lady Diana Spencer in the halcyon summer of 1981.
Nearing completion at London Bridge is something called The Shard, a building which consists of 72 floors and rises 1,017ft into the heavens.
Over the past decade, the London Eye, which was first sponsored by British Airways and is currently partnered by EDF Energy, has become part of the cityÂ’s skyline. A total of 2,100 tonnes of steel went into the construction of the giant wheel and the 32 capsules, numbered 1 to 33 since No. 13 is skipped for superstitious reasons.
By the way, the London Eye is not a Ferris wheel, as it is sometimes wrongly described. Its air-conditioned capsules are positioned on the outside of the wheel structure, supported by an A-frame, making it the “world’s tallest cantilevered observation wheel”.
The design is similar to an enormous bicycle wheel, I am told, with a central hub and spindle connected to outer and inner rims by cable spokes.
In the UK, safety is paramount. “Maintenance work takes place every night to ensure the safe and smooth running of the London Eye,” I am authoritatively informed. “There is also an annual maintenance period every January when the London Eye is closed for any other maintenance work that may be necessary.”
The London Eye has become one of the most popular tourist attractions in London visited daily by 10,000 people. Adults pay £18.60 (about Rs 1,350) and children £9.54 (about Rs 700) but the price drops to £16.74 (about Rs 1,220) and £8.59 (about Rs 625) if the booking is done online.
The supervised getting on and off is easy since the wheel turns slowly. But it is like life. It does turn.
There is a combined ticket that allows you to disembark from London Eye and walk next door to undertake a 40-minute river cruise to Tower Bridge and back — which is what I did.
Although the cruise can be taken on its own, the combined price is £27.50 (about Rs 2,000) for adults and £13.99 (about Rs 1,020) for children — or £24.79 (about Rs 1,800) and £12.63 (about Rs 920) if booked online. Family tickets (two adults and two children) have added discounts.
The cruise was utterly enchanting, made even more so by the young guide who provided the informative but humorous commentary. She pointed out Blackfriars Bridge where an Italian banker, Robert Calvi, had been found hanging, presumed murdered, in 1982; the “Traitor’s Gate” under the Tower of London for the condemned being taken for beheading; and Waterloo Bridge where one Bulgarian had murdered another in 1978 by poking him with a poisoned umbrella.
A Calcutta cruise would do equally well if a latter-day Feluda could recall similar lurid crimes plus a couple of ghost stories from the past.
By the time we got back to the London Eye, the storm clouds had cleared and the still turning wheel, representing passing time, was bathed in glorious sunlight.
Do you think the Calcutta Eye is a good idea? Why / why not? Tell ttmetro@abpmail.com
Source:
No comments:
Post a Comment