The British Airways London Eye has become, quite literally, the way the world sees London
Despite its spectacular success, the London Eye was conceived, designed and built against considerable odds. The brainchild of a husband and wife architects David Marks and Julia Barfield, the first drawings of the London Eye were made on their kitchen table in South London in 1993 for a competition to design a millennium landmark. When the competition folded, the couple continued to pursue their dream and soon attracted the attention of the London Press. The rest is history.
Over 1,700 people in five countries were involved in building the London Eye and the transportation of the components alone became a mammoth logistics exercise, with deliveries timed to co-ordinate with tides in the River Thames.As part of the project design, and in anticipation of the high volumes of passenger traffic the management team at the London Eye was keen to ensure that visitor management was highly organised and that confusion at queuing points was reduced to a minimum. This included ensuring that the internal ticket office at County Hall in London could optimise the processing of visitors.
ITABmk was asked to review the specifications for the initial installation in the ticketing office. A solution was devised that incorporated a bespoke removable Beltrac queue management system that would reflect the brand values of the London Eye in terms of aesthetic appeal.
The unprecedented success of the London Eye meant that the management team once again approached ITABmk to devise a means of meeting the growing demand for an enhanced external queue management and control system. The solution had to incorporate special, removable, posts designed to the exact specifications of the London Eye.ITABmk installed its tailored queue management system. The removable post units are customised to allow for 360-degree rotation of the belt unit. This gives maximum flexibility for crowd control and enables quick response to pedestrian traffic volumes.