The London Eye is illuminated during London’s annual New Year’s Eve fireworks display. The giant observation wheel stands on the South Bank of the River Thames and provides a prominent circular landmark in the city’s midnight broadcast views.
London’s large organized fireworks celebration developed in the early twenty-first century. The display is staged along the Thames, with fireworks launched from barges and from locations near major riverside landmarks. The London Eye’s height, position, and moving capsules make it an especially visible part of the skyline, although it is not the only landmark featured.
The attraction opened to the public in 2000 as the Millennium Wheel and was later renamed the London Eye. It is often confused with Big Ben in descriptions of London’s countdown because the clock tower supplies the famous midnight chimes. The Eye is the illuminated observation wheel; Elizabeth Tower, commonly called Big Ben, is the clock landmark.