Millennium Dome

The Millennium Dome is a large dome on the Greenwich Peninsula in the Docklands area in Eastern London, at grid reference TQ391801. In May 2005, it was announced a sponsorship deal involving O2 would see it being renamed to The O2. It is served by the North Greenwich tube station on the Jubilee line, which was opened just before the Dome.

Construction

The Dome is the largest single roofed structure in the world. Externally it appears as a large, brilliant white marquee with twelve 95m-high yellow-painted support towers. In plan view it is circular, 365m in diameter, with scalloped edges. It has become one of England's most easily recognised, if not best loved, landmarks. It can easily be seen on aerial photographs of London, including the title sequence of the popular soap-opera EastEnders. Its exterior is reminiscent of the dome built for the Festival of Britain in 1951. The architect was Richard Rogers.

The canopy is made of PTFE coated glass fibre fabric, a durable and weather-resistant plastic, and is 50m high in the middle. Its symmetry is interrupted by a hole through which a ventilation shaft from the Blackwall Tunnel rises.

Apart from the Dome itself, the project included the reclamation of the entire Greenwich peninsula. The land was previously derelict and contaminated by toxic sludge from an earlier gasworks that operated from 1889 to 1985. The clean-up operation was seen by the Deputy Prime Minister Michael Heseltine as an investment that would add a large area of useful land to the crowded capital. This was billed as part of a larger plan to regenerate a large, sparsely populated area to the east of London and south of the River Thames, an area initially called the East Thames Corridor but latterly marketed as the "Thames Gateway".

Millennium celebrations

During the whole of 2000 the Dome was open to the public, and contained a large number of attractions and exhibits. The project was financed by the UK government to celebrate the arrival of the 3rd millennium.

The exhibits

A major problem was that, having inherited a grandiose project for a Festival of Britain or World's Fair-type showcase from the previous Conservative government, the organisers of the project did not in fact have much of an idea of what to place in it for the public to see. Some saw the result as a disjointed assemblage of thinly-veiled corporate-sponsored promotions, burger stalls, and lacklustre museum-style exhibits that were so weak as to appear almost as parodies.

The interior space was subdivided into 14 so-called zones - Body, Work, Learning, Money, Play, Journey, Self Portrait, Living Island, Talk, Faith, Home Planet, Rest, Mind, and Shared Ground. Some of the Zones were perceived as lacking in content and pandering to political correctness. The Journey Zone, outlining the history and development of transportation, was one of the few singled out for praise.

The central stage show had music by Peter Gabriel and an acrobatic cast of 160, and was performed 999 times over the course of the year. A specially commissioned Blackadder film was shown throughout the year in a separate cinema on the site. These features escaped the criticism that was heaped on the rest of the project although the lyrics and meaning of the spectacular stage show were difficult to follow for some, and the Blackadder film is noted for not being as sharp and funny as the original four series and specials. The music was later released on Gabriel's album Ovo (complete with lyrics), but sadly there seems to be no video record of the show. It would in any case be impossible to do justice to the scale of the show on video, although an IMAX film might just have managed to. It should be added that had the higher forecasts of attendance proved correct, then the visitors' enjoyment could have been greatly reduced by queueing and general congestion.

Financial problems

The project was largely reported by the press to have been a flop: badly thought-out, badly executed, and leaving the government with the embarrassing question of what to do with it afterwards. During 2000 the organisers repeatedly asked for, and received, more cash from the government. Part of the perceived problem was that the financial predictions were based on an unrealistically high forecast of visitor numbers at 12 million. During the twelve months it was open there were approximately 6.5 million visitors - slightly more than they 6 million that attended the Festival of Britain, but that only ran from May to September.

The aftermath

The Dome is now normally closed. It is still of interest to the press, the government's difficulties in disposing of the Dome being the subject of much critical comment. The amount spent on maintaining the closed building has also been criticised. Some reports indicated the Dome was costing £1 million per month to maintain during 2001, but the government claimed these were exaggerations.

In December 2001 it was announced that Meridian Delta Ltd. had been chosen by the government to develop the Dome as a sports and entertainment centre, and to develop housing, shops and offices on 150 acres (0.6 km²) of surrounding land. Meridian Delta is backed by the American billionaire Philip Anschutz, who has interests in oil, railroads, and telecommunications (the troubled Qwest), as well as a string of sports-related investments.

Winter Wonderland 2003

Despite an ongoing debate about the Dome's future use (see above), the Dome opened again during December 2003 for the Winter Wonderland 2003 experience. The event culminated in a Laser and Firework display on New Year's Eve.

Crisis Open Christmas Shelter 2004

Over the 2004 Christmas period part of the main Dome was used as a shelter for the homeless and others in need, organised by the charity Crisis.

London Olympics 2012

Following its conversion into a large indoor arena, which should be complete by 2007, the Dome will be the largest multi-purpose arena in London. It will normally be used mainly for pop concerts and other entertainments. There is a possibility a basketball or ice hockey team will be based there, but no British team in either of those sports has ever used such a large venue before. It will host the 2009 World Gymnastics Championships. At the 2012 Summer Olympic Games it will be used for the Artistic gymnastics and Trampolining, for which it will have a spectator capacity of 16,500, and for the finals of the basketball, for which it will have a capacity of 20,000. The earlier rounds of the basketball competition will take place at one of the arenas in the Olympic Park. A 6,000 seat temporary venue called the Greenwich Arena will be built near to the Dome and will stage the Badminton and Rhythmic gymnastics events.

Chronology of the project

1994 : Millennium Commission established by Prime Minister John Major and handed over to deputy Prime Minister Michael Heseltine.
January 1996 : Greenwich site selected. Birmingham, Derby and Stratford had been considered as alternatives.
December 1996 : Government decides to support the project with public money after being unable to raise private capital.
1997 : New Prime Minister Tony Blair decides to continue the project, although his cabinet is not unanimous.
June 20 1997 : Peter Mandelson MP put in charge of the New Millennium Experience Company.
January 1998 : Creative director Stephen Bayley quits the project
December 23 1998 : Peter Mandelson resigns from government after a financial scandal.
January 4 1999 : Lord Falconer replaces Mandelson.
May 1999 : The Jubilee Line Extension opens, connecting the Dome to the London Underground. This too is seen as disorderly, opening 14 months late and with station facilities not yet complete (e.g. lifts for wheelchair access)
June 22 1999 : Structure of Dome completed.
December 31 1999 & January 1 2000 : Opening night is a disaster, as VIP guests are kept waiting outside for hours because of a ticketing problem.
January 1 2000 : Dome opens to public.
August 1 2000 : Culture, Media & Sport Select Committee publishes adverse report on Dome's management.
September 25 2000 : Michael Heseltine, the Dome's original sponsor, admits that it was a bad idea.
November 7 2000 : Thieves break in to the diamond exhibit during opening hours but are foiled by waiting police.
November 9 2000 : National Audit Office publishes report blaming unrealistic attendance targets for the Dome's financial problems.
November 30 2000 : Miss World 2000 beauty pageant. India's Priyanka Chopra won the crown.
December 31 2000 : Dome closed to the public, having attracted just over six million visitors. The initial projected figure was twelve million.
December 2001 : Announcement of sale of site to Meridian Delta Limited, who plan to turn it into a 20,000 seat sports and entertainment venue. Houses and offices will be built on the surrounding land subject to the consent of the London Borough of Greenwich.
February 18 2002 : Four men jailed for the attempted diamond robbery in 2000.
December 6 2003: Opening of Winter Wonderland 2003
2007 : Scheduled opening date for refurbished Dome.

In popular culture

The Dome featured in the pre-title sequence of the 1999 James Bond movie The World Is Not Enough. It was also featured in the video game of the same name, The World Is Not Enough, made by Electronic Arts.