Standing at 429ft it would have been almost as tall as Blackpool Tower. And with its slender, flagpole-like design it would have been a bizarre and striking addition to the Manchester skyline.
Designed by the architects behind the London Eye, the i360 would have been the world's tallest observation tower. But after an initial blaze of publicity, Manchester turned its back on the idea and the futuristic 'vertical cable car' was left searching for a new home.
Following the success of the Eye, husband-and-wife architecture duo Marks Barsfield were inundated with requests for similar big wheels across the globe. First imagined in 2003, the i360 was their idea to meet that demand.
