Tourists wanting a bird's eye view of Big Ben, St Paul's Cathedral and Buckingham Palace have put the London Eye in the ranks of the city's most visited attractions since it was opened 25 years ago on Sunday.

The London Eye is celebrating 25 years of towering over the capital's skyline. Over 85 million visitors from across the globe have journeyed across the gigantic Ferris wheel since the millennium.

Were it not for the tenacity of two plucky London architects in the early 1990s and their unwavering vision, London's skyline - and the capital's New Year's Eve fireworks celebrations - would be significantly different today.