London Eye gets a lick of paint to celebrate its 25th anniversary

The London Eye is being repainted by eight workers abseiling across the attraction up to 443 feet (135 metres) above the River Thames.

Around 5,000 litres of paint are due to be used to spruce up the 32-pod wheel, which is enough to cover 1,660 cars. The wheel is repainted every three years.

The team of eight painters, who began in January and will work on the renovation until June, were pictured on Wednesday painting the spokes while dangling above the River.

Over the six-month period they will spend 9,360 hours painting overnight from Monday to Friday.

Ti Onur, head of operations at the London Eye, said: “Our amazing team take to the skies every three years to ensure the lastminute.com London Eye stays sparkling over the capital.

“And this year even more importantly, to ensure the attraction looks its very best heading into its 25th birthday in 2025.”

The attraction is preparing for a swell in visitors expected over the Easter weekend, school holidays and also the “high volume” of tourists drawn to Europe for the Olympics, which take place in Paris in July.

Originally called the Millennium Wheel, the London Eye opened in March 2000 as part of millennium celebrations and was initially intended to last just five years. Instead, it has become a permanent feature of the capital’s skyline.

In January 2024, David Nock, 43, from Dorset, and 11 of his family members were 400ft up when the hatch on their pod flew open at the outset of Storm Henk.

The attraction was forced to close and then underwent maintenance for a  month.

The London Eye is the eighth highest earning tourist attraction in the world, with 3.5 million visitors and an estimated income of £91 million in 2023, according to a study by storage firm Bounce.