A bird’s eye view of
the South Bank
Construction Materials Group: Visit to London’s Millenial
celebration architecture on the Thames
 TThe
Construction Materials Group paid a visit to London’s
South Bank on a sunny evening on Thursday 9 June to experience
two of the better known Millennium structures first-hand.
First port of call was the London Eye, operated by British
Airways, with a trip on the wheel to observe the sights of
London from on high. The air-conditioned passenger capsules
gave splendid panoramic views of Greater London. These included
Alexandra Palace to the north, the water tower on Shooters
Hill to the east and the television transmitters of the BBC
and ITV at Crystal Palace and Croydon respectively to the
south. The Eye rotates very slowly at about 0.9km/h to undertake
a full revolution in around 30 minutes, which enables most
passengers to get on and off without the wheel having to stop.
At 135m in height, the Eye is currently the largest observation
wheel in the world.
The Group then moved on to Waterloo Station for some refreshments
and then walked via the Thames Path to the Millennium Bridge
at Southwark. This bridge, designed by Foster and constructed
by Arup, strides the Thames elegantly between Southwark and
Blackfriars. Made of high-strength concrete and containing
rubber dampers and shock absorbers strapped to the underside
of the bridge deck to avoid any wobbling, it was very interesting
to cross the bridge from south to north. To our sides were
other well-known bridges, while beneath us were waterbuses
and other river craft plying their way along the Thames.
The visit, which was well organised by Dr Jasbir Lota, Chairman
of the Construction Materials Group, ended at Blackfriars
as night began to fall and had been thoroughly enjoyed by
all the participants. It was particularly poignant that both
the London Eye and the Millennium Bridge, important features
of the Millennium celebrations in 2000, which had experienced
serious teething problems, are now functioning extremely well
and are attracting many visitors.
By Prof John Bensted, SCI Construction Materials
Group
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