Ferris Gallery

Who People Are Dating - Diane Ferraz and Nicky Scott

Musical duo, and, at the time, romantically linked couple, Diane Ferraz and Nicky Scott who performed together in the band, The Ferris Wheel, pairing black female singers with white male performers, an unusual combination at the time. Featured in London Life as the lead image in a piece on Who People Are Dating. Ferraz was born in Trinidad and the caption comments as follows, Diane Ferrax (sic) and Nicky Scott are really in love, have made a record together, have been boycotted by magazines who disapprove of coloured liaisons. Date: 1966

© Illustrated London News Ltd/Mary Evans

The Wiener Riesenrad - Big Wheel in Vienna, Austria

A rara epostcard view of the Wiener Riesenrad (German for Viennese Giant Wheel), or Riesenrad is a Ferris wheel at the entrance of the Prater amusement park in Leopoldstadt, the 2nd district of Austria's capital Vienna. It was one of the earliest Ferris wheels, erected in 1897 (when this card was printed AND sent!) to celebrate Emperor Franz Josef I's Golden Jubilee. The designer was an Englishman, Walter Bassett. Date: 1897

© Mary Evans / Grenville Collins Postcard Collection

Giant Ferris Wheel, Earls Court

Construction work began on the wheel in March 1894 and it was opened to passengers in July 1895. It had a diameter of 300ft, weighed 1, 100 tons and a complete revolution took around twenty minutes. The wheel got stuck in May 1896 when passengers were stranded for four and a half-hours. It was demolished in 1906-7 because it was no longer profitable. Date: 1900

© Mary Evans Picture Library / Peter & Dawn Cope Collection