The structure is 135 meters (443 ft) tall and the wheel has a diameter of 120 meters (394 ft). When it opened to the public in 2000 it was the world's tallest Ferris wheel.
Supported by an A-frame on one side only, unlike the taller Nanchang and Singapore wheels, the Eye is described by its operators as "the world's tallest cantilevered observation wheel".
The London Eye adjoins the western end of Jubilee Garden, on the South Bank of the River Thames between Westminster Bridge and Hungerford Bridge beside County Hall, in the London Borough of Lambeth.