Colegiul National “Vasile Lucaciu”

LUCRARE PENTRU OBŢINEREA ATESTATULUI LA

LONDON TOURIST ITINERARIES

Eleva: Profesor –coordonator:

Baia Mare

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2020

Precis

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 Introduction

Figure 1. London Map

London is one of the best destination in UK, there you can visit a lot of museums, churches
and entertainment attractions. London attracts over 15 million international tourists per year,
making it one of the world’s most visited in terms of international visits. Jetsetters claim it isn’t
as romantic as Paris, as energetic as Hong Kong, as sharp as New York, as ancient as
Rome. Country folk criticize it because it doesn’t have log fires, paddocks or the sound of
church bells across the meadows. Much of the rest of Britain regards London as a giant
parasite.

London is home to many tourist attractions that are known worldwide. One of the most popular
is The British Museum who holds seven million exhibits that not only have to do with London,
but Ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome. The Museum is open seven days a week and is free.

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There are also historic and cultural attractions, the most popular of which include Buckingham
Palace. This Royal Palace is still in use today. Here, visitors( approximately 15 million tourists
every year) can witness the “Changing of the Guard” when a member of the royal family is in
residence. During the summer months, some rooms are open to the public for tours.

Other touristic itinerary include Trafalgar Square, Covent Garden, London Eye, London Zoo,
Tower Bridge, Chinatown, Piccadilly Circus, Buckingham Palace, The Houses of
Parliament ,Harrods,The National Gallery and Madame Tussauds. There are many more
attractions in the city itself and in the surrounding areas. It is recommended that the visitor buy
a good guide book to London and plan what he or she wants to see in advance.

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 Chapter one:

Presentation of my touristic itinerary

In 2009 I was in a wonderful trip with my sister and a few friends in Europe where we visited
Germany, France, Belgium and England. In England we visited a few cities such as:
Canterbury, Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, York and the most beautiful was London.

In London I stayed three days, so I had time to visit some tourist attractions such as: Piccadilly
Circus, Buckingham Palace, Houses of Parliament, Harrods, The National Gallery, Tower
Bridge and Chinatown.

In the first day in London I visited Piccadilly Circus where I took a few pictures and I admired
the view. Piccadilly Circus is a road junction and public space of London’s West End, in the
City of Westminster, built in 1819. Piccadilly is a strange name. If you know what it means and
its origin, then you are ahead of 995 of Londoners. The statue in the middle of Piccadilly
Circus is one of London’s oddities. It was erected by “public donations” in memory of the
reputedly kind old seventh Earl of Shaftesbury. It was the first London statue to be cast in
aluminium, but it was supposed to be of the Christian Spirit of Charity, not the God of Love. It
was also supposed to have a large fountain coming out of it, but it was placed in a tub so small
that the water from the fountain splashed all the passers-by.

Figure 2. Piccadilly Circus

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The next stop in the first day was in Chinatown. I didn’t know that London could have such a
colored street where everything was written in Chinese. The name Chinatown has been used
at different times to describe different places in London. The present Chinatown is a part of the
Soho area of the City of Westminster, occupying the area in and around Gerrard Street. It
contains a number of Chinese restaurants, bakeries, supermarkets and also souvenir shops.
One reason why 90% of visitors come to Chinatown is to eat. There are dozens and dozens of
restaurants from where you can to choose all kind of the Chinese specialities.

Figure 3. Chinatown

Our last stop in the first day was at Buckingham Palace. Here we arrived at 11 o`clock in
order to catch a good place to see the changing of the Royal Guard. It began at 11:15 AM. It
was very nice, but our bad luck was the fact that it started to rain just when the ceremony
started.

Buckingham Palace is perhaps the most famous building in London-home of the Queen and
focal point for any period of national rejoicing. It’s the setting for formal diplomatic occasions,
state banquets, royal investitures and garden parties. To have been invited to ‘the Palace” is
considered by many the greatest honour possible. By the early 19 th century, Buckingham
Palace was in ill repair. William IV didn’t like the place and offered it to the members of the
Houses of Parliament, the old Palace of Westminster having recently burned down. They
weren’t interested and poor William IV lived unhappily in Buckingham Palace until his death in
1837. Victoria found it uncomfortable. The chimneys smoked, the rooms were cold and dirty.

The last major building work took place during the reign of King George V when, in 1913, Sir
Aston Webb redesigned Blore's 1850 East Front to resemble in part Giacomo Leoni's Lyme
Park in Cheshire. This new, refaced principal façade (of Portland stone) was designed to be
the backdrop to the Victoria Memorial, a large memorial statue of Queen Victoria, placed

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outside the main gates.[61] George V, who had succeeded Edward VII in 1910, had a more
serious personality than his father; greater emphasis was now placed on official entertaining
and royal duties than on lavish parties.

Figure 4. Buckingham Palace

In the second day we started our day with a visit to the Houses of Parliament. This building
seemed so big to me. I have never seen such an enormous building in my life. I really liked it
and the clock Big Ben was very nice. Here we stayed only for a few minutes to take some
pictures.

The correct name for what most people call the Houses of Parliament is the Palace of
Westminster, a reminder that this seat of government began life as royal residence. Not until
the reign of Henry VIII in the early 16 th did Westminster cease to be the home of kings and
queens. There are three towers in the Palace of Westminster: The Clock Tower(318 feet/100
metres) high, The Middle Tower(300 feet/92 metres) high and the Victoria Tower(340 feet/105
metres) high. Big Ben is not a tower. It is a clock. Thanks to the BBC, however, Big Ben sets
the time for the whole of Britain and for much of the rest of the world.

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 Figure 5. Houses of Parliament

Our next stop was at Tower Bridge. When ve got here it started a little bit to rain, but we werw
able to take some pictures. We saw the bridge from 100 meters, we didn`t got closer because
the group was big and because there were anotrer trourists. With all of this, Tower Bridge was
spectacular.

Tower Bridge was built in 1890s and is situated over The River Thames. Try to visit in autumn
or winter, when the air is clear and there’s no summer haze, because the views from the
walkways are spectacular. Upstream you can see the Tower and Traitors’ Gate, The
Monument, St Paul’s Cathedral and the B.T. Tower. You also get the best view of some of the
happier modern design in the City. The downstream view is the even better. You see how the
shape of southeast London is formed by the ranges of hills that lie beyond. Don’t miss the
engine room. It is the heart of the whole operation and a temple to the splendours of Victorian
engineering. As you enter, you are reminded that this is a working bridge.

Figure 6. Tower Bridge

The last stop in the sesond day was at Harrods for shopping. Indeed, it is an enourmous
shopping center with luxurious shops. Here you can find whatever you want, from Versace to
Reebok.

Harrods is a long terracotta building, crowed with a cupola and bedecked at all times with the
flags of the nations. It is like a museum where you can buy the exhibits, which range from the
quaint and the curious through the grotesque to the gaspingly wonderful.

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 Figure 7. Harrods

The last day in London was dedicated to culture because we visited The National Gallery. The
building is so big and beautiful and the painting are so special. I really enjoyed this museum. I
am without words when I think to it.

The National Gallery is an art museum on Trafalgar Square. Founded in 1824, it houses a
collection of over 2.300 paintings dating from the mid-13 th century to 1900.The collection
includes works by most of the great masters of Western art from the 12 th to the 19th century.
There are paintings by Leonardo, Titian, Velasquez, Goya, Constable, Turner, Monet, Van
Gogh and Picasso. It is the fourth most visited art museum in the world, after the Musee du
Luvru, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the British Museum.

Figure 8. The National Gallery

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 Chapter two:

Madame Tussaud`s

Madame Tussauds is a wax museum in London with branches in a number of major cities. It
was founded by wax sculptor Marie Tussaud and was formerly known as "Madame
Tussaud's", but the apostrophe is no longer used. Madame Tussauds is a major tourist
attraction in London, displaying waxworks of historical and royal figures, film stars, sports stars
and infamous murderers.

Marie Tussaud was born Anna Maria Grosholtz in 1761 in Strasbourg, France. Her mother
worked as a housekeeper for Dr. Philippe Curtius in Bern, Switzerland, who was a physician
skilled in wax modelling. Curtius taught Tussaud the art of wax modelling.

Figure 9. Madame Tussauds (Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt)

Tussaud created her first wax figure, of Voltaire, in 1777. Other famous people she modelled
at that time include Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Benjamin Franklin. During the French
Revolution she modelled many prominent victims. In her memoirs she claims that she would
search through corpses to find the decapitated heads of executed citizens, from which she
would make death masks. Her death masks were held up as revolutionary flags and paraded
through the streets of Paris. Following the doctor's death in 1794, she inherited his vast
collection of wax models and spent the next 33 years travelling around Europe. Her marriage
to François Tussaud in 1795 lent a new name to the show: Madame Tussaud's. In 1802, she
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went to London having accepted an invitation from Paul Philidor, a magic lantern and
phantasmagoria pioneer, to exhibit her work alongside his show at the Lyceum Theatre,
London. She did not fare particularly well financially, with Philidor taking half of her profits. As a
result of the Napoleonic Wars, she was unable to return to France, so she travelled thughout
Great Britain and Ireland exhibiting her collection. From 1831 she took a series of short leases
on the upper floor of "Baker eet Bazaar" (on the west side of Baker Street,Dorset Street and
King Street), which later featured in the Druce-Portland case sequence of trials of 1898-1907.
This became Tussaud's first permanent home in 1836.

Figure10. Madame Tussauds (Shrek)

One of the main attractions of her museum was the Chamber of Horrors. This part of the
exhibition included victims of the French Revolution and newly created figures of murderers
and other criminals. The name is often credited to a contributor to Punch in 1845, but Marie
appears to have originated it herself, using it in advertising as early as 1843.

Other famous people were added to the exhibition, including Horatio Nelson, and Sir Walter
Scott. Some of the sculptures done by Marie Tussaud herself still exist. The gallery originally
contained some 400 different figures, but fire damage in 1925, coupled with German bombs in
1941, has rendered most of these older models defunct. The casts themselves have survived
(allowing the historical waxworks to be remade), and these can be seen in the museum's
history exhibit. The oldest figure on display is that of Madame du Barry. Other faces from the
time of Tussaud include Robespierre, George III and Benjamin Franklin. In 1842, she made a
self portrait which is now on display at the entrance of her museum. She died in her sleep on
15 April 1850.

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 Figure 11. Madame Tussauds (The Oscar)

By 1883 the restricted space and rising cost of the Baker Street site prompted her grandson
(Joseph Randall) to commission the building at its current location on Marylebone Road. The
new exhibition galleries were opened on 14 July 1884 and were a great success. However, the
building costs, falling so soon after buying out his cousin Louisa's half share in the business in
1881, meant the business was under-funded. A limited company was formed in 1888 to attract
fresh capital but had to be dissolved after disagreements between the family shareholders,
and in February 1889 Tussaud's was sold to a group of businessmen led by Edwin Josiah
Poyser. Edward White, an artist dismissed by the new owners to save money, allegedly sent a
parcel bomb to John Theodore Tussaud in June 1889 in revenge.

Madame Tussaud's wax museum has now grown to become a major tourist attraction in
London, incorporating (until 2010) the London Planetarium in its west wing. It has expanded
and will expand with branches in Amsterdam, Bangkok, Berlin, Blackpool, Hollywood, Hong
Kong, Las Vegas, New York City, Shanghai, Sydney, Vienna and Washington, D.C. Today's
wax figures at Tussauds include historical and royal figures, film stars, sports stars and famous
murderers. Known as "Madame Tussauds" museums (no apostrophe), they are owned by a
leisure company called Merlin Entertainments, following the acquisition of The Tussauds
Group in May 2007.

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 Figure 12. Madame Tussauds (Benny Hill)

In July 2008, Madame Tussauds' Berlin branch became embroiled in controversy when a 41-
year-old German man brushed past two guards and decapitated a wax figure depicting Adolf
Hitler. This was believed to be an act of protest against showing the ruthless dictator alongside
sports heroes, movie stars, and other historical figures. However, the statue has since been
repaired and the perpetrator has admitted he attacked the statue to win a bet. The original
model of Hitler, unveiled in Madame Tussauds London in April 1933 was frequently vandalised
and a replacement in 1936 had to be carefully guarded.

Figure 13. Madame Tussauds (Robbie Williams)

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Chamber of Horrors:

Located deep within the Chamber of Horror is an inner-chamber where things take an even
scarier turn. Here, a maximum-security prison has been taken over by the unhinged inmates.
Live and on the loose, their mission is to give you nightmares.

The Chamber of Horror is given a new injection of horror with the introduction of live actors.
The lights are out and so are the serial killers! A sign warns children under 12, pregnant
women and those of a nervous disposition to stay away-echoing the sign outside the original
Madame Tussauds` `Separate Room` in 1835.

How do they do the characters?

An entire team is working to do figures. It usually takes about three months, depending on the
pose. A ballet dancer with a lot of flesh showing takes longer than a man in suit. The body is
sculpted in clay, moulded in plaster, then cast in fibre glass. It has to be tough and durable to
support the fragile wax head.

The hair is inserted into the wax for a natural look. With fancy female hairdos they sometimes
make a wig then insert the front hairline. It takes four weeks to insert a head of hair and five
days to colour a head.

Impressions:

From my point of view, Madame Tussauds` really deserves to be visited. The museum is
enormous and to be able to enjoy every piece of it I believe I should have stayed at least one
day. Unfortunately I had only an hour to visit it. Our group arrived late at the museum and we
had to stay over an hour in queue and when we entered the museum, it was so crowded that I
couldn’t see all the stars I wanted. With all of this, I really enjoyed the museum and I took
pictures with George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Leonardo Di Caprio, Shrek, Britney
Spears, George Bush, Lady Diana, Albert Einstein and others.

In my visit at Madame Tussauds, I visited the Chamber of Horrors. It was so scary, but nice.
The actors were so good because everything seemed so real. They had their faces painted, I
saw a girl kept in chains. After this part I got on a train and I saw many figurines on the walls;
after this we went outside because the museum was supposed to close. But I really enjoyed
the experience at this museum and I would come back any time.

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 Chapter three:

British Museum

The British Museum is a museum in London dedicated to human history and culture. Its
permanent collection, numbering some eight million works, is among the largest and most
comprehensive in existence and originates from all continents, illustrating and documenting
the story of human culture from its beginnings to the present.

The British Museum was established in 1753, largely based on the collections of the physician
and scientist Sir Hans Sloane. The museum first opened to the public on 15 January 1759 in
Montagu House in Bloomsbury, on the site of the current museum building. Its expansion over
the following two and a half centuries was largely a result of an expanding British colonial
footprint and has resulted in the creation of several branch institutions, the first being the
British Museum (Natural History) in South Kensington in 1887. Some objects in the collection,
most notably the Elgin Marbles from the Parthenon, are the objects of intense controversy and
of calls for restitution to their countries of origin.

Until 1997, when the British Library (previously centred on the Round Reading Room) moved
to a new site, the British Museum was unique in that it housed both a national museum of
antiquities and a national library in the same building. The museum is a non-departmental
public body sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, and as with all other
national museums in the United Kingdom it charges no admission fee, except for loan
exhibitions. Since 2002 the director of the museum has been Neil MacGregor.

History

Sir Hans Sloane, founder of the British Museum

Although today principally a museum of cultural art objects and antiquities, the British Museum
was founded as a "universal museum". Its foundations lie in the will of the physician and
naturalist Sir Hans Sloane (1660–1753). During the course of his lifetime Sloane gathered an
enviable collection of curiosities and, not wishing to see his collection broken up after death,
he bequeathed it to King George II, for the nation, for the princely sum of £20,000.

At that time, Sloane's collection consisted of around 71,000 objects of all kinds including some
40,000 printed books, 7,000 manuscripts, extensive natural history specimens including 337
volumes of dried plants, prints and drawings including those by Albrecht Dürer and antiquities
from Egypt, Greece, Rome, the Ancient Near and Far East and the Americas.

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Foundation (1753)

On 7 June 1753, King George II gave his formal assent to the Act of Parliament which
established the British Museum. The Foundation Act, added two other libraries to the Sloane
collection. The Cottonian Library, assembled by Sir Robert Cotton, dated back to Elizabethan
times and the Harleian library, the collection of the Earls of Oxford. They were joined in 1757
by the Royal Library, assembled by various British monarchs. Together these four "foundation
collections" included many of the most treasured books now in the British Library including the
Lindisfarne Gospels and the sole surviving copy of Beowulf.

The British Museum was the first of a new kind of museum – national, belonging to neither
church nor king, freely open to the public and aiming to collect everything. Sloane's collection,
while including a vast miscellany of objects, tended to reflect his scientific interests. The
addition of the Cotton and Harley manuscripts introduced a literary and antiquarian element
and meant that the British Museum now became both national museum and library.

The largest building site in Europe (1825–50)

The Museum became a construction site as Sir Robert Smirke's grand neo-classical building
gradually arose. The King's Library, on the ground floor of the East Wing, was handed over in
1827, and was described as one of the finest rooms in London although it was not fully open to
the general public until 1857, however, special openings were arranged during The Great
Exhibition of 1851. In spite of dirt and disruption the collections grew, outpacing the new
building.

In 1840 the Museum became involved in its first overseas excavations, Charles Fellows's
expedition to Xanthos, in Asia Minor, whence came remains of the tombs of the rulers of
ancient Lycia, among them the Nereid and Payava monuments. In 1857 Charles Newton was
to discover the 4th-century BC Mausoleum of Halikarnassos, one of the Seven Wonders of the
Ancient World. In the 1840s and 1850s the Museum supported excavations in Assyria by A.H.
Layard and others at sites such as Nimrud and Nineveh. Of particular interest to curators was
the eventual discovery of Ashurbanipal's great library of cuneiform tablets, which helped to
make the Museum a focus for Assyrian studies.

Sir Thomas Grenville (1755–1846), a Trustee of The British Museum from 1830, assembled a
fine library of 20,240 volumes, which he left to the Museum in his will. The books arrived in
January 1847 in twenty-one horse-drawn vans. The only vacant space for this large library was
a room originally intended for manuscripts, between the Front Entrance Hall and the
Manuscript Saloon. The books remained here until the British Library moved to St Pancras in
1998.

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Scholarship and legacies (1875–1900)

The natural history collections were an integral part of the British Museum until their removal to
the new British Museum of Natural History, now the Natural History Museum, in 1887. With the
departure and the completion of the new White Wing (fronting Montague Street) in 1884, more
space was available for antiquities and ethnography and the library could further expand. This
was a time of innovation as electric lighting was introduced in the Reading Room and
exhibition galleries.

In 1882 the Museum was involved in the establishment of the independent Egypt Exploration
Fund (now Society) the first British body to carry out research in Egypt. A bequest from Miss
Emma Turner in 1892 financed excavations in Cyprus. In 1897 the death of the great collector
and curator, A.W. Franks, was followed by an immense bequest of 3,300 finger rings, 153
drinking vessels, 512 pieces of continental porcelain, 1,500 netsuke, 850 inro, over 30,000
bookplates and miscellaneous items of jewellery and plate, among them the Oxus Treasure.

In 1898 Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild bequeathed the glittering contents from his New
Smoking Room at Waddesdon Manor as the Waddesdon Bequest. This consisted of almost
300 pieces of objets d'art et de vertu which included exquisite examples of jewellery, plate,
enamel, carvings, glass and maiolica, among them the Holy Thorn Reliquary, probably created
in the 1390s in Paris for John, Duke of Berry. The collection was in the tradition of a
schatzkammer or treasure house such as those formed by the Renaissance princes of Europe.
Baron Ferdinand's will was most specific, and failure to observe the terms would make it void,
the collection should be placed in a special room to be called the Waddesdon Bequest Room
separate and apart from the other contents of the Museum and thenceforth for ever thereafter,
keep the same in such room or in some other room to be substituted for it.

The Museum today

Today it no longer houses collections of natural history, and the books and manuscripts it once
held now form part of the independent British Library. The Museum nevertheless preserves its
universality in its collections of artefacts representing the cultures of the world, ancient and
modern. The original 1753 collection has grown to over thirteen million objects at the British
Museum, 70 million at the Natural History Museum and 150 million at the British Library.

The Round Reading Room, which was designed by the architect Sydney Smirke, opened in
1857. For almost 150 years researchers came here to consult the Museum's vast library. The
Reading Room closed in 1997 when the national library (the British Library) moved to a new
building at St Pancras. Today it has been transformed into the Walter and Leonore Annenberg
Centre.

With the bookstacks in the central courtyard of the museum empty, the process of demolition
for Lord Foster's glass-roofed Great Court could begin. The Great Court, opened in 2000,

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while undoubtedly improving circulation around the museum, was criticised for having a lack of
exhibition space at a time when the museum was in serious financial difficulties and many
galleries were closed to the public. At the same time the African and Oceanic collections that
had been temporarily housed in 6 Burlington Gardens were given a new gallery in the North
Wing funded by the Sainsbury family - with the donation valued at £25 million.

As part of its very large website, the museum has the largest online database of objects in the
collection of any museum in the world, with 2,000,000 individual object entries, 650,000 of
them illustrated, online at the start of 2012. There is also a "Highlights" database with longer
entries on over 4,000 objects, and several specialized online research catalogues and online
journals (all free to access).

Figure 14. British Museum (mummy)

Figure 15. British Museum (The Pantheon from Greece)

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 Chapter four:

London Eye

The London Eye is a giant Ferris wheel situated on the banks of the River Thames in London,
England. The entire structure is 135 metres tall and the wheel has a diameter of 120 metres.

Figure 16. London Eye

Design and construction

Supported by an A-frame on one side only, the Eye is described by its operators as a
cantilevered observation wheel.

The London Eye was designed by architects Frank Anatole, Nic Bailey, Steve Chilton, Malcolm
Cook, Mark Sparrowhawk, and the husband-and-wife team of Julia Barfield and David Marks.

Mace were responsible for construction management, with Hollandia as the main steelwork
contractor and Tilbury Douglas as the civil contractor. Consulting engineers Tony Gee &
Partners designed the foundation works while Beckett Rankine designed the marine works.

Nathaniel Lichfield and Partners assisted The Tussauds Group in obtaining planning and listed
building consent to alter the wall on the South Bank of the Thames. They also examined and
reported on the implications of a Section 106 agreement attached to the original contract.
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Later, they also prepared planning and listed building consent applications for the permanent
retention of the attraction, which involved the co-ordination of an Environmental Statement and
the production of a planning supporting statement detailing the reasons for its retention.

The rim of the Eye is supported by tensioned steel cables and resembles a huge spoked
bicycle wheel. The lighting was redone with LED lighting from Color Kinetics in December
2006 to allow digital control of the lights as opposed to the manual replacement of gels over
fluorescent tubes.

The wheel was constructed in sections which were floated up the Thames on barges and
assembled lying flat on piled platforms in the river. Once the wheel was complete it was lifted
into an upright position by a strand jack system made by Enerpac. It was first raised at 2
degrees per hour until it reached 65 degrees, then left in that position for a week while
engineers prepared for the second phase of the lift. The project was European with major
components coming from six countries: the steel was supplied from the UK and fabricated in
The Netherlands by the Dutch company Hollandia, the cables came from Italy, the bearings
came from Germany (FAG/Schaeffler Group), the spindle and hub were cast in the Czech
Republic, the capsules were made by Poma in France (and the glass for these came from
Italy), and the electrical components from the UK.

The wheel's 32 sealed and air-conditioned ovoidal passenger capsules, designed and supplied
by Leitner-Poma, are attached to the external circumference of the wheel and rotated by
electric motors. Each of the 10-tonne (11-short-ton) capsules represents one of the London
Boroughs, and holds up to 25 people, who are free to walk around inside the capsule, though
seating is provided. The wheel rotates at 26 cm (10 in) per second (about 0.9 km/h or 0.6 mph)
so that one revolution takes about 30 minutes. It does not usually stop to take on passengers;
the rotation rate is slow enough to allow passengers to walk on and off the moving capsules at
ground level. It is, however, stopped to allow disabled or elderly passengers time to embark
and disembark safely.

Figure 17. London Eye

The London Eye was formally opened by the then Prime Minister, Tony Blair, on 31 December
1999, although it was not opened to the public until 9 March 2000 because of technical
problems. Since its opening, the Eye has become a major landmark and tourist attraction.

Since 1 January 2005, the Eye has been the focal point of London's New Year celebrations,
with 10-minute displays taking place involving fireworks fired from the wheel itself.

In 2006 the Tussauds Group bought out the other two joint owners, British Airways and the
Marks Barfield family (the lead architects). Following Merlin Entertainments' purchase of the
Tussauds Group in 2007, it now owns 100% of the Eye. British Airways continued its brand
association, but from the beginning of 2008 the name 'British Airways' was dropped from the
logo.

On 12 August 2009 the London Eye saw another rebrand, this time being called "The Merlin
Entertainments London Eye" to show Merlin Entertainments' ownership. A new logo was
designed for the attraction—this time taking the actual form of an eye made out of London's
famous landmarks. This also came at the time when the new Merlin Entertainments London
Eye 4D Experience preflight show was launched underneath the ticket centre in County Hall.

During the bidding process of the 2012 Olympic Games, the London bid organisers announced
the Olympic emblem would be attached to the Eye for the duration of the 2012 Summer
Olympics.

On 5 June 2008 it was announced that 30 million people had ridden the London Eye since its
opening in March 2000.

In 2009 Merlin Entertainments opened a preflight 4D Experience at The London Eye, which is
included in the ticket price. The newly refurbished ticket hall and 4D cinema experience was
designed by architect Kay Elliott working with Merlin Studios project designer Craig Sciba.
Merlin Studios later appointed Simex-Iwerks as the 4D theatre hardware specialists. The film
was written and directed by 3D director Julian Napier and 3D produced by Phil Streather. The
same year the first stage of a £12.5 million capsule upgrade started. Each capsule was taken
down and floated down the river to Tilbury Docks in Essex.

In January 2011, a lighting-up ceremony marked the start of a three-year deal between nuclear
company EDF Energy and Merlin Entertainment. Merlin said EDF would help it reduce the
London Eye's overall carbon footprint using its expertise as the UK's largest producer of low-
carbon electricity.

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Impressions:

Since it was the first thing I saw when I got in London, I was really impressed. The construction
is so big and modern. I was surprised to find out that from it you can see London on a sunny
day on a range of 40 km. I took as many pictures that I could. From the cabin I could see many
important buildings and many others that were under construction.

Figure 18. View from London Eye

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Conclusions:

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http://www.directbooking.ro/obiectiv-muzeul-madame-tussauds;

http://www.tvl.ro/londra/obiectiveturisticelondra;

http://www.lastminute.com/site/find/World/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/London/WOW-
Attraction-45865.html;

http://www.homeandabroad.com/browse/details/sites.ha?mainInfoId=24692;

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