The Brighton seafront is about to change forever, thanks to the British Airways i360, the tallest moving observation tower in the world which will open to the public on Thursday 4th August.

The latest attraction on the beachfront of Brighton is the world’s first vertical cable car. Designed to gently glide groups of up to 200 visitors upwards to an impressive height of 138m in a futuristic, fully enclosed, hand-crafted glass viewing pod, guests can admire the 360-degree views of up to 26 miles over Brighton and Hove, the Sussex coast and the English Channel.

The development has taken eleven years to complete, and is the invention of architect-entrepreneurs David Marks and Julia Barfield of Marks Barfield Architects, who are perhaps best known as the designers of the world famous London Eye.

“Once you have experienced this, there is an almost irresistible urge to do it again - to drop another piece of design into the water and watch the ripples. We hope and expect that the i360 can have a similar positive effect on another great city: Brighton” Julia Barfield said.

The tower is 162m high and has been acknowledged by Guinness World Records as the world’s most slender tower, with a height to width ratio of more than 40:1. The tower uses state of the art cable car technology to drive the pod up and down. It uses energy recapture technology during its descent to generate almost half of the electricity required to power its ascent.

In addition, British Airways i360 are excited to announce a spectacular community event on Brighton beach. A fireworks and a lighting display will take place at 10pm on the opening day, Thursday 4th August.

Images provided by British Airways i360