<P> The South Bank Centre and the British Airways London Eye agreed on a 25 - year lease on 8 February 2006 after a judicial review over the rent dispute . The lease agreement meant that the South Bank Centre, a publicly funded charity, would receive at least £ 500,000 a year from the attraction, the status of which is secured for the foreseeable future . Tussauds also announced the acquisition of the entire one - third interests of British Airways and Marks Barfield in the Eye as well as the outstanding debt to BA . These agreements gave Tussauds 100% ownership and resolved the debt from the Eye's construction loan from British Airways, which stood at more than £ 150 million by mid-2005 and had been increasing at 25% per annum . </P> <P> Sir Richard Rogers, winner of the 2007 Pritzker Architecture Prize, wrote of the London Eye in a book about the project: </P> <P> The Eye has done for London what the Eiffel Tower did for Paris, which is to give it a symbol and to let people climb above the city and look back down on it . Not just specialists or rich people, but everybody . That's the beauty of it: it is public and accessible, and it is in a great position at the heart of London . </P> <P> Writing for G2 in an article from August 2007, Steve Rose described the Eye as follows: </P>

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