{"id":12309,"date":"2013-05-13T10:00:59","date_gmt":"2013-05-13T09:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/?p=12309"},"modified":"2013-05-13T10:21:32","modified_gmt":"2013-05-13T09:21:32","slug":"the-brighton-wheel-a-steve-coogan-powered-third-hand-alternative-to-the-west-pier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/the-brighton-wheel-a-steve-coogan-powered-third-hand-alternative-to-the-west-pier\/","title":{"rendered":"The Brighton Wheel, a Steve Coogan-powered, third-hand alternative to the West Pier"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"brighton-photos-april-2013-06\"<\/p>\n

No city is a city without a huge ferris wheel these days, and since October 2011, \u00a0the\u00a0Brighton Wheel<\/a>\u00a0has been spinning folks around on Madeira Drive, right on the Brighton seafront.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The wheel is a well travelled creation, previously being installed in\u00a0Paris\u00a0and South Africa. It cost \u00a36m to bring to\u00a0Brighton and reaches\u00a050 metres above sea level at its maximum elevation.<\/p>\n

There’s 35 viewing capsules (priced\u00a0at \u00a38 for adults) and one “VIP” capsule which declares itself to be the ‘Ultimate VIP Champagne Experience<\/a>,’ with a half bottle being lobbed in for your \u00a360 fare.<\/p>\n

Passengers taking the 12 minute ride – sorry, “voyage<\/em>” – are regaled by a no-doubt pithy’n’witty commentary\u00a0by the actor\/comedian\u00a0Steve Coogan.<\/p>\n

Non-fans of Mr Coogan’s\u00a0particularly\u00a0brand of humorous discourse will be pleased to learn that there is an “off” switch in each pod.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

West Pier replacement<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Brighton Wheel is supposed to be a\u00a0temporary\u00a0attraction while the council flounders about trying to raise funding for the i360 towe<\/a>r, their ghastly ‘vertical’ replacement for the \u00a0West Pier<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The iconic West Pier had sadly met its fate<\/a> in the early 2000s after a series of\u00a0natural and decidedly\u00a0unnatural<\/em>-looking\u00a0calamities\u00a0befell the Grade I listed Victorian pier.<\/p>\n

Despite the best efforts of the West Pier Trust, it’s now officially lost forever, hence the decision to unleash the i360.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Soaring 175 metres into the Brighton skyline, the proposed tower features an observation pod rising to 141 metres, plus shops and catering at the base.<\/p>\n

Dreamt up by Marks Barfield, the team behind the London Eye, the i360 claims to be a\u00a0\u2018vertical pier\u2019 that somehow embodies the ‘spirit of the original pier\u2019s history<\/a>‘ and its ethos.<\/p>\n

Other\u00a0commentators\u00a0have\u00a0been a\u00a0little less enthusiastic, with one\u00a0describing\u00a0it as “pointless and ugly,” adding, “Erect a giant dildo with a cock-ring why don\u2019t you?”<\/p>\n

Unfortunately for its backers, the credit crunch crisis of 2008 scuppered any hope of the thing being built on time, with the original\u00a0completion\u00a0date of 2013 now being put back to 2015. And I wouldn’t hold my breath on that one either.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

With Brighton still lacking its shiny new space-age tower, another new seafront attraction was needed to fill in the gap, and so the Brighton Wheel shimmied into town, for an uncertain length of time.<\/p>\n

Here’s how a\u00a0local site<\/a>\u00a0describes the current situation:<\/p>\n

Is the Brighton Wheel a permanent attraction?<\/strong><\/p>\n

In theory, no. When the West Pier Trust failed to build its\u00a0proposed\u00a0i360 viewing tower, Paramount Attractions saw a gap in the market. But the City Council still supports the i360 proposal and therefore has only given the Brighton Wheel a 5 year operating licence at Dalton’s Bastion.<\/p>\n

Supposedly, if the i360 is built, the Brighton Wheel will be dismantled. In May 2012 the council offered to loan the i360 company \u00a314 million to complete its funding and get it finally built. The total cost of the i360 is put at \u00a335 million.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Info:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Brighton Wheel<\/a>
\nDaltons Bastion
\nMadeira Drive
\nBrighton
\nBN2 1TB<\/p>\n

Information line:
\n+ 44 (0) 1273 722 822
\nLines open Monday-Friday 9am-5pm<\/p>\n

[More Brighton photos here<\/strong><\/a>]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No city is a city without a huge ferris wheel these days, and since October 2011, \u00a0the\u00a0Brighton Wheel\u00a0has been spinning folks around on Madeira Drive, right on the Brighton seafront.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12311,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[17,193],"tags":[463,115,603,32,217,602],"class_list":["post-12309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-photos","category-places","tag-beach","tag-brighton","tag-i360","tag-seaside","tag-sussex","tag-west-pier"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/brighton-wheel-madeira-drive-04.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pQI7P-3cx","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12309"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12309\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12318,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12309\/revisions\/12318"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}