It’s wheely coming back

Manchester’s big wheel to spin back into town.

city centre eye Manchester returning wheel wheel of manchester

The famous big wheel is set to return to Manchester later this year.

The old wheel

The Wheel of Manchester was the centrepiece of Exchange Square, next to the Printworks, when it was installed in 2007.

It was taken down in 2012 after a five year run to make room for the London Olympics TV viewing areas.

Now plans are underway to resurrect the ride in time for Christmas, and it will sit in its new home of Piccadilly Gardens.

A distance view

The structure will be slightly smaller than old wheel and no, it’s not as big as the London Eye – in fact it’ll be nearly 2 and a half times smaller.

And the views won’t be quite the same – the great scenery of the Houses of Parliament compared to the roof of the Arndale Centre.

But it’ll give you a nice few minutes relaxing 200 feet up in your own little pod.

“We’ve had a lot of requests from the public to bring [the wheel] back”, said Pat Karney, a spokesman for the city centre.