The London Eye has traditionally featured prominently in televised London New Year’s Eve fireworks.
The London Eye, a giant observation wheel on the South Bank of the River Thames, provides a distinctive circular landmark around which the city’s modern midnight display is staged. Fireworks are launched from the wheel and nearby barges, creating a vertical panorama visible from many points along the river.
London’s official fireworks became a major annual public event in the twenty-first century. Large crowds gather along the Thames, while television viewers around the world watch the display during the transition to the new year. The event is organized around midnight in Greenwich Mean Time, the time standard historically associated with London.
Big Ben is often mentioned alongside the fireworks because its clock chimes mark midnight, but it is not the landmark that gives the fireworks display its most recognizable wheel-shaped centerpiece. The London Eye opened to the public in 2000 and has since become strongly associated with the celebration.