showground for a five years from 1887. Whitley did not profit from his efforts, yet his desire had decided the future of Earl's Court and its purpose in later years. The Great Wheel, a Ferris wheel, was created for Imre Kiralfy's Empire of India Exhibition in 1895. A plaque in the EC press centre commemorated some of these facts and that the reclusive Queen Victoria was an occasional visitor to the shows. Kiralfy had the neighbouring Empress Hall built to seat 6,000 people and then had the Earls Court grounds converted in the style of the 1893 Chicago White City for the Columbian Exposition, and went on to found nearby White City in 1908. In 1935, Earls Court was sold and the new owners decided to construct an exhibition centre, with an internal pool, to rival any other in the world and to dominate the nearby Olympia exhibition hall. The plan was to create Europe's largest structure by volume. The project did not go exactly to plan; it ran over budget and was late in completion. Designed by the specialist American theatre architect, C. Howard Crane, with over 40,000 sq m of space over two levels, Earls Court finally opened its doors to the public for the Chocolate and Confectionery Exhibition on 1 September 1937. The British International Motor Show immediately followed and later the Commercial Vehicle show. In spite of all the problems during the latter part of its construction, the project was eventually completed at a cost of £1.5 million. At the centre of Earls Court was its internal pool or "lake" (its basin being 60m long and 30m wide), which for use took four days to fill and four days to empty; 2 million gallons of water were required to fill it. These operations could only be accomplished at night, so as not to put undue strain on local services. A 750-tonne retractable floor in three sections covered the pool when not in use and was lowered using water hydraulic rams. The pool was used for watercraft exhibitions and lastly as a feature for the Ideal Home Show in 2011. A new entrance to Earl's Court tube station was constructed on Warwick Road to facilitate easy access to the exhibition centre, including a direct entrance from the underground passage which connected the District and Piccadilly lines. However, this was closed in the 1990s after the capacity of