The
Millennium Dome, colloquially referred to simply as
The Dome or even
The O2 Arena, is the original name of a large
domeA dome is a structural element of architecture that resembles the hollow upper half of a sphere. Dome structures made of various materials have a long architectural lineage extending into prehistory....
-shaped building, originally used to house the
Millennium Experience, a major exhibition celebrating the beginning of the third millennium. Located on the
Greenwich PeninsulaGreenwich Peninsula is an area of South London, England, located in the London Borough of Greenwich.The peninsula is bounded on three sides by a loop of the Thames, between the Isle of Dogs and Silvertown. To the south is the rest of Greenwich, to the south-east is Charlton.The peninsula lies...
in
South East LondonThe South East is a sub-region of the London Plan corresponding to the London Boroughs of Bexley, Bromley, Greenwich, Lewisham and Southwark. The sub region was established in 2008. The south east has a population of 1,300,000 and is the location of 500,000 jobs...
, England, the exhibition was open to the public from 1 January - 31 December 2000. The project and exhibition was the subject of considerable political controversy as it failed to attract the number of visitors anticipated, with recurring financial problems. All of the original exhibition and associated complex has since been demolished. The dome still exists, and it is now a key exterior feature of
The O2The O2, visually typeset in branding as The O2, is a large entertainment district on the Greenwich peninsula in South East London, England, including an indoor arena, a music club, a Cineworld cinema, an exhibition space, piazzas, bars and restaurants...
. The
Prime MeridianThe Prime Meridian is the meridian at which the longitude is defined to be 0°.The Prime Meridian and its opposite the 180th meridian , which the International Date Line generally follows, form a great circle that divides the Earth into the Eastern and Western Hemispheres.An international...
passes the western edge of the Dome and the nearest
London Underground station is
North GreenwichNorth Greenwich is a station on London Underground's Jubilee Line, opened on 14 May 1999.Despite its name, North Greenwich is not in the area historically known as North Greenwich, on the Isle of Dogs, north of the river; an entirely different station used to be there, between 1872 and 1926...
on the
Jubilee LineThe Jubilee line is a line on the London Underground , in the United Kingdom. It was built in two major sections—initially to Charing Cross, in central London, and later extended, in 1999, to Stratford, in east London. The later stations are larger and have special safety features, both aspects...
.
Construction
The dome is the largest of its type in the world. Externally, it appears as a large white marquee with twelve 100 m-high yellow support towers, one for each month of the year, or each hour of the clock face, representing the role played by
Greenwich Mean TimeGreenwich Mean Time is a term originally referring to mean solar time at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London. It is arguably the same as Coordinated Universal Time and when this is viewed as a time zone the name Greenwich Mean Time is especially used by bodies connected with the United...
. In plan view it is circular, 365 m in diameter — one metre for each day of the year — with scalloped edges. It has become one of the United Kingdom's most recognisable landmarks. It can easily be seen on aerial photographs of London. Its exterior is reminiscent of the
Dome of DiscoveryThe Dome of Discovery was a temporary exhibition building designed by architect Ralph Tubbs for the Festival of Britain celebrations which took place on London's South Bank in 1951. The consulting engineers were Freeman Fox and Partners, in particular Oleg Kerensky The Dome of Discovery was a...
built for the
Festival of BritainThe Festival of Britain was a national exhibition in Britain in the summer of 1951. It was organised by the government to give Britons a feeling of recovery in the aftermath of war and to promote good quality design in the rebuilding of British towns and cities. The Festival's centrepiece was in...
in 1951.
The architect was
Richard RogersRichard George Rogers, Baron Rogers of Riverside CH Kt FRIBA FCSD is a British architect noted for his modernist and functionalist designs....
. He and the contractor was a joint venture company, McAlpine/Laing Joint Venture (MLJV) formed between Sir Robert McAlpine and Laing Management. The building structure was engineered by
Buro HappoldBuro Happold is a professional services firm providing engineering consultancy, design, planning, project management and consulting services for all aspects of buildings, infrastructure and the environment, with its head office in Bath, Somerset...
, and the entire roof structure weighs less than the air contained within the building. Although referred to as a
domeA dome is a structural element of architecture that resembles the hollow upper half of a sphere. Dome structures made of various materials have a long architectural lineage extending into prehistory....
it is not strictly one as it is not self-supporting, but is a mast-supported, dome-shaped cable network. For this reason, it has been disparagingly referred to as the Millennium Tent.
The canopy is made of
PTFEPolytetrafluoroethylene is a synthetic fluoropolymer of tetrafluoroethylene that finds numerous applications. PTFE is most well known by the DuPont brand name Teflon....
-coated glass fibre fabric, a durable and weather-resistant plastic, and is 52 m high in the middle - one metre for each week of the year. Its symmetry is interrupted by a hole through which a ventilation shaft from the
Blackwall TunnelThe Blackwall Tunnel is a pair of road tunnels underneath the River Thames in east London, linking the London Borough of Tower Hamlets with the London Borough of Greenwich, and part of the A102 road. The northern portal lies just south of the East India Dock Road in Blackwall; the southern...
rises.
Apart from the dome itself, the project included the
reclamationLand reclamation, usually known as reclamation, is the process to create new land from sea or riverbeds. The land reclaimed is known as reclamation ground or landfill.- Habitation :...
of the entire Greenwich Peninsula. The land was previously derelict and contaminated by toxic sludge from
East Greenwich Gas WorksThe East Greenwich Gas Works of the South Metropolitan Gas Company was the last gas works to be built in London, and the most modern. Originally manufacturing town gas from coal brought in by river and exporting coke and chemicals, the plant was adapted to produce gas from oil in the 1960s...
that operated from 1889 to 1985. The clean-up operation was seen by the then
Deputy Prime MinisterA deputy prime minister or vice prime minister is, in some counties, a government minister who can take the position of acting prime minister when the prime minister is temporarily absent. The position is often likened to that of a vice president, but is significantly different, though both...
Michael HeseltineMichael Ray Dibdin Heseltine, Baron Heseltine, CH, PC is a British businessman, Conservative politician and patron of the Tory Reform Group. He was a Member of Parliament from 1966 to 2001 and was a prominent figure in the governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major...
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 ThamesThe River Thames flows through southern England. It is the longest river entirely in England and the second longest in the United Kingdom. While it is best known because its lower reaches flow through central London, the river flows alongside several other towns and cities, including Oxford,...
, an area initially called the East Thames Corridor but latterly marketed as the "
Thames GatewayThe Thames Gateway is an area of land stretching east from inner east London on both sides of the River Thames and the Thames Estuary. The area, which includes much brownfield land, has been designated a national priority for urban regeneration, taking advantage of the development opportunities...
".
Background to the Dome project
The Dome project was conceived, originally on a somewhat smaller scale, under
John MajorSir John Major, is a British Conservative politician, who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1990–1997...
's
ConservativeThe Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
government, as a
Festival of BritainThe Festival of Britain was a national exhibition in Britain in the summer of 1951. It was organised by the government to give Britons a feeling of recovery in the aftermath of war and to promote good quality design in the rebuilding of British towns and cities. The Festival's centrepiece was in...
or
World's FairWorld's fair, World fair, Universal Exposition, and World Expo are various large public exhibitions held in different parts of the world. The first Expo was held in The Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, London, United Kingdom, in 1851, under the title "Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All...
-type showcase to celebrate the third millennium. The incoming
LabourThe Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
government elected in 1997 under
Tony BlairAnthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
greatly expanded the size, scope and funding of the project. It also significantly increased expectations of what would be delivered. Just before its opening Blair claimed the Dome would be "a triumph of confidence over cynicism, boldness over blandness, excellence over mediocrity". In the words of
BBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
correspondent Robert Orchard, "the Dome was to be highlighted as a glittering New Labour achievement in the next election manifesto".
However, before its opening, The Dome was excoriated in
Iain SinclairIain Sinclair FRSL is a British writer and filmmaker. Much of his work is rooted in London, most recently within the influences of psychogeography.-Life and work:...
's diatribe,
Sorry Meniscus - Excursions to the Millennium Dome (Profile Books: London 1999, ISBN 1861971796), which accurately forecast the hype, the political posturing and the eventual disillusion. The post-exhibition plan had been to convert The Dome into a football stadium which would last for 25 years:
Charlton AthleticCharlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, in the London Borough of Greenwich. They compete in Football League One, the third tier of English football. The club was founded on 9 June 1905, when a number of youth clubs in the southeast London area,...
at one point considered a possible move but instead chose to redevelop their own stadium.
Fisher AthleticFisher Athletic F.C. was a semi-professional football club from South East London, which last played in the Conference South, which is one of the two leagues that form the sixth tier of the English football league system. The Bermondsey-based club ground-shared at Champion Hill Stadium, the home...
were a local team interested in moving to the Dome, but they were considered to have too small a fan base to make this feasible. The Dome was planned to take over the functions performed by the
London ArenaThe London Arena was an indoor arena and exhibition centre, on the Isle of Dogs, in East London, England...
, after its closure. This is the function which
The O2 ArenaThe O2 Arena is a multi-purpose indoor arena located in the centre of The O2, a large entertainment complex on the Greenwich peninsula in London, England.With a capacity of up to 20,000 depending on the event, it is second largest...
has now undertaken.
Millennium Experience
After a private opening on the evening of 31 December 1999 the Millennium Experience at the Dome was open to the public for the whole of 2000, and contained a large number of attractions and exhibits.
The exhibits
The interior space was subdivided into 14
zones (with the lead designers of the zones):
Who we are:
- Body, sponsored by Boots, supported by L'Oréal
The L'Oréal Group is the world's largest cosmetics and beauty company. With its registered office in Paris and head office in the Paris suburb of Clichy, Hauts-de-Seine, France, it has developed activities in the field of cosmetics...
and Roche (Branson Coates ArchitectureNigel Coates is an English architect, author, and prolific designer of interiors, exhibitions, products, and lighting. He grew up in the town of Malvern, Worcestershire and was educated at Hanley Castle Grammar School before studying at the University of Nottingham and the Architectural Association...
)
- Mind, sponsored by BAE Systems
BAE Systems plc is a British multinational defence, security and aerospace company headquartered in London, United Kingdom, that has global interests, particularly in North America through its subsidiary BAE Systems Inc. BAE is among the world's largest military contractors; in 2009 it was the...
and Marconi (Office of Zaha HadidZaha Hadid, CBE is an Iraqi-British architect.-Life and career:Hadid was born in 1950 in Baghdad, Iraq. She received a degree in mathematics from the American University of Beirut before moving to study at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London.After graduating she worked...
)
- Faith comprised 5 sections: History of Christianity
The history of Christianity concerns the Christian religion, its followers and the Church with its various denominations, from the first century to the present. Christianity was founded in the 1st century by the followers of Jesus of Nazareth who they believed to be the Christ or chosen one of God...
, Making of Key Life Experiences, How Shall I live?, Night Rain (a contemplationThe word contemplation comes from the Latin word contemplatio. Its root is also that of the Latin word templum, a piece of ground consecrated for the taking of auspices, or a building for worship, derived either from Proto-Indo-European base *tem- "to cut", and so a "place reserved or cut out" or...
area designed by James TurrellJames Turrell is an American artist primarily concerned with light and space. Turrell was a MacArthur Fellow in 1984. He is represented by The Pace Gallery in New York...
and Faith Festivals Calender (Eva JiricnaEva Jiřičná CBE is a renowned Czech architect, and designer, active in London and Prague. She is known for her attention to detail and work of a distinctly modern style...
Architects with Jasper Jacobs Associates)
- Self Portrait, sponsored by Marks & Spencer
Marks and Spencer plc is a British retailer headquartered in the City of Westminster, London, with over 700 stores in the United Kingdom and over 300 stores spread across more than 40 countries. It specialises in the selling of clothing and luxury food products...
(Caribiner with Lorenzo Apicella at Pentagram), sculpture design by Gerald ScarfeGerald Anthony Scarfe, CBE, RDI, is an English cartoonist and illustrator. He worked as editorial cartoonist for The Sunday Times and illustrator for The New Yorker...
What we do:
- Work, sponsored by Manpower Inc.
ManpowerGroup is a workforce solutions and services provider company headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. It was established by Elmer Winter and Aaron Scheinfeld in 1948. It was acquired by Blue Arrow of Britain in 1987, but became independent again in 1991.The directors include...
(WORK)
- Learning, sponsored by Tesco
Tesco plc is a global grocery and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Cheshunt, United Kingdom. It is the third-largest retailer in the world measured by revenues and the second-largest measured by profits...
(WORK)
- Rest (Richard Rogers
Richard George Rogers, Baron Rogers of Riverside CH Kt FRIBA FCSD is a British architect noted for his modernist and functionalist designs....
Partnership)
- Play (Land Design Studio)
- Talk, sponsored by BT Group
BT Group plc is a global telecommunications services company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is one of the largest telecommunications services companies in the world and has operations in more than 170 countries. Through its BT Global Services division it is a major supplier of...
(Imagination Group)
- Money, sponsored by the City of London (Caribiner with Bob Baxter at Amalgam)
- Journey, sponsored by Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company is an American multinational automaker based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford and Lincoln brands, Ford also owns a small stake in Mazda in Japan and Aston Martin in the UK...
(Imagination Group)
Where we live:
- Shared Ground, was made from recycled card sponsored by Camelot Group
Camelot GroupCamelot is a private limited company, its entire share issue is owned by a single shareholder, as detailed above. are the operators of the UK National Lottery. Camelot Group was awarded the National Lottery franchise in 1993 and was re-awarded the franchise in 2001 and again in 2007...
plc (WORK)
- Living Island (WORK)
- Home Planet, sponsored by British Airways
British Airways is the flag carrier airline of the United Kingdom, based in Waterside, near its main hub at London Heathrow Airport. British Airways is the largest airline in the UK based on fleet size, international flights and international destinations...
and BAA plcBAA Ltd. is the Spanish-owned operator of six British airports and Naples Airport in Italy, making the company one of the largest transport companies in the world. BAA stems from British Airports Authority and is owned by a consortium led by Grupo Ferrovial, a Spanish firm specialising in...
(Park Avenue Productions)
Some of the Zones were perceived as lacking in content. The Journey Zone, outlining the history and development of transport, was one of the few singled out for praise.
Surrounded by the zones was a performance area in the centre of the dome. With music composed by
Peter GabrielPeter Brian Gabriel is an English singer, musician, and songwriter who rose to fame as the lead vocalist and flautist of the progressive rock group Genesis. After leaving Genesis, Gabriel went on to a successful solo career...
and an acrobatic cast of 160, the
Millennium Dome ShowThe Millennium Dome Show was a multimedia, Cirque du Soleil-esque show created specifically for the year 2000 in the Millennium Dome. The show was directed by Mark Fisher and Peter Gabriel...
was performed 999 times over the course of the year. Throughout the year, the specially-commissioned film
Blackadder: Back & ForthBlackadder: Back & Forth is a 1999 short film based on the BBC mock-historical comedy series Blackadder that marks the end of the Blackadder saga...
was shown in Skyscape (a separate cinema on the site sponsored by
Sky Television plcSky Television plc was a public limited company which operated its four-channel satellite television service, launched by Rupert Murdoch's News International on 5 February 1989...
). There was also the
McDonald'sMcDonald's Corporation is the world's largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants, serving around 64 million customers daily in 119 countries. Headquartered in the United States, the company began in 1940 as a barbecue restaurant operated by the eponymous Richard and Maurice McDonald; in 1948...
Our Town Story project in which each Local Education Authority in the UK was invited to perform a show of their devising which characterised their area and its people.
As well as the above, the first ever series of
Techno GamesTechno Games was BBC Television's Olympic Games for robots. It was a spin-off from the hugely successful Robot Wars. The TV series was shown on BBC2 every weekday for a fortnight from the third Monday in March just after Science Week...
was filmed there and shown on
BBC TwoBBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...
the same year.
Other attractions
There were a number of other attractions both in and outside of The Dome. Inside the Dome there was a play area named Timekeepers of the Millennium (featuring the characters Coggsley and Sprinx), The Millennium Coin Minting Press in association with the
Royal MintThe Royal Mint is the body permitted to manufacture, or mint, coins in the United Kingdom. The Mint originated over 1,100 years ago, but since 2009 it operates as Royal Mint Ltd, a company which has an exclusive contract with HM Treasury to supply all coinage for the UK...
, the 1951
Festival of BritainThe Festival of Britain was a national exhibition in Britain in the summer of 1951. It was organised by the government to give Britons a feeling of recovery in the aftermath of war and to promote good quality design in the rebuilding of British towns and cities. The Festival's centrepiece was in...
Bus, and the
Millennium Star JewelsThe Millennium Star is a famous diamond owned by De Beers. At 203.04 carats , the world's second largest known top-color , internally and externally flawless, pear-shaped diamond....
(focus of the failed
Millennium Diamond heistOn 7 November 2000, a criminal gang attempted to steal the flawless Millennium Star diamond valued at over £200 million, from an exhibition at the Millennium Dome in Greenwich, London.The robbers had been under police surveillance before the heist...
). Outside was the Millennium Map (thirteen metres high), the Childhood Cube,
Looking Around (a hidden installation), Greenwich Pavilion, the Hanging Gardens at the front of the Dome, as well as a number of other installations and sculpture.
Financial and management problems
The project was largely reported by the press to have been a
flopFailure refers to the state or condition of not meeting a desirable or intended objective, and may be viewed as the opposite of success. Product failure ranges from failure to sell the product to fracture of the product, in the worst cases leading to personal injury, the province of forensic...
: 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
Millennium CommissionThe Millennium Commission in the United Kingdom was set up to aid communities at the end of the 2nd millennium and the start of the 3rd millennium. It used funding raised through the UK National Lottery....
, the Lottery body which supported it. Numerous changes at management and Board level, before and during the exhibition, had only limited, if any, results.
Jennifer PageJennifer Anne "Jennie" Page, CBE was Chief Executive of the London Millennium Dome project from 1 March 1995 until she was fired after a flawed opening night and poor early attendance at the start of 2000.-Education:...
was sacked as chief executive of the New Millennium Experience Company just one month after the dome's opening. Press reports suggested that the then Prime Minister, Tony Blair, personally placed a high priority on making the Dome a success. But part of the problem was that the financial predictions were based on an unrealistically high forecast of visitor numbers at 12 million. During the 12 months it was open there were approximately 6.5 million visitors — significantly fewer than the approximately 10 million paying visitors that attended the
Festival of BritainThe Festival of Britain was a national exhibition in Britain in the summer of 1951. It was organised by the government to give Britons a feeling of recovery in the aftermath of war and to promote good quality design in the rebuilding of British towns and cities. The Festival's centrepiece was in...
, which only ran from May to September.
Empire Exhibition, Scotland 1938Empire Exhibition, Scotland 1938 was an international exposition held at Bellahouston Park in Glasgow, from May to December 1938....
held in Glasgow attracted more than 12 million visitors being open May to October. Unlike the press, visitor feedback was extremely positive. It was the most popular tourist attraction in 2000, second was the
London EyeThe London Eye is a tall giant Ferris wheel situated on the banks of the River Thames, in London, England.It is the tallest Ferris wheel in Europe, and the most popular paid tourist attraction in the United Kingdom, visited by over 3.5 million people annually...
; third was
Alton TowersAlton Towers is a theme park and resort located in Staffordshire, England. It attracts around 2.7 million visitors per year making it the most visited theme park in the United Kingdom. Alton Towers is also the 9th most visited theme park in Europe...
, which had been first in 1999.
According to the UK
National Audit OfficeThe National Audit Office is an independent Parliamentary body in the United Kingdom which is responsible for auditing central government departments, government agencies and non-departmental public bodies...
, the total cost of The Dome at the liquidation of the New Millennium Experience Company in 2002 was £789 million, of which £628 million was covered by National Lottery grants and £189 million through sales of tickets etc. A surplus of £25 million over costs meant that the full lottery grant was not required. However, the £603 million of lottery money was still £204 million in excess of the original estimate of £399 million required, due to the shortfall in visitor numbers.
The aftermath
It was, however, still of interest to the press, the government's difficulties in selling the Dome being the subject of much critical comment. The amount spent on maintaining the closed building was also criticised. Shortly after it had closed, Lord Falconer reported that The Dome was costing over £1 million per month to maintain.
Dispersal of exhibits
Following closure of the Dome, some Zones were dismantled by the sponsoring organisations, but much of the content was auctioned. This included a number of artworks specially commissioned from contemporary British artists. A piece by
Gavin TurkGavin Turk is a British artist and one of the Young British Artists . He often uses his own image in life-size sculptures of famous people.-Life and work:...
was sold for far below his then auction price though Turk stated that he did not think the piece had worked. The Timekeepers of the Millennium attraction was acquired by the
Chessington World of AdventuresChessington World of Adventures Resort is a theme park and zoo in South West London, England. It lies south of Central London. Historically opened as Chessington Zoo in 1931, a theme park was developed alongside it, opening in 1987...
theme park in
SurreySurrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
. A unique record of the memorabilia and paraphernalia of the Millennium Experience is held by a private collector in the United States. Items such as kiosks, wastebins and assorted souvenirs appeared at the
Dreamland MargateDreamland Margate is an amusement park located in Margate, Kent, England. It is currently owned by Margate Town Centre Regeneration Company and is closed to the public...
amusement park in Kent.
Temporary reopenings
Despite the ongoing debate about the dome's future use, the dome opened again during December 2003 for the
Winter Wonderland 2003 experience. The event, which featured a large fun fair, ice rink, and other attractions, culminated in a
laserA laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of photons. The term "laser" originated as an acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation...
and firework display on New Year's Eve. It also served as the venue for a number of free music festivals organised by the Mayor of London under the "Respect" banner.
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
CrisisCrisis is is the UK national charity for single homeless people. The charity offers year-round education, employment, housing and well-being services from centres in London, Newcastle, Oxford, Edinburgh and Merseyside, called Crisis Skylight Centres....
after superseding the
London ArenaThe London Arena was an indoor arena and exhibition centre, on the Isle of Dogs, in East London, England...
, which had previously hosted the event. In 2005, when work began for the redevelopment of the Dome, the London Arena hosted the event again.
Redevelopment and rebranding as The O2
By late 2000, a proposal had been made for a high-tech business park to be erected under the tent area, creating an "indoor city" complete with streets, parks, and buildings. The business park was actually the original 1996 proposal for the site of the peninsula before the plans for the Millennium Dome were proposed.
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 acre (0.607029 km²) of surrounding land. It is also hoped to relocate some of London's
tertiary educationTertiary education, also referred to as third stage, third level, and post-secondary education, is the educational level following the completion of a school providing a secondary education, such as a high school, secondary school, university-preparatory school...
establishments to the site. Meridian Delta is backed by the American billionaire
Philip AnschutzPhilip Frederick Anschutz is an American entrepreneur. Anschutz bought out his father's drilling company in 1961 and earned large returns in Wyoming. He has invested in stocks, real estate and railroads...
, who has interests in oil, railways, and telecommunications, as well as a string of sports-related investments.
The dome was publicly renamed as
The O2The O2, visually typeset in branding as The O2, is a large entertainment district on the Greenwich peninsula in South East London, England, including an indoor arena, a music club, a Cineworld cinema, an exhibition space, piazzas, bars and restaurants...
on 31 May 2005, in a £6 million-per-year deal with telecommunications company O2 plc, now a subsidiary of Telefónica Europe. This announcement, which presaged a major redevelopment of the site that retained little beyond the shell of the dome, gave publicity to the dome's transition into an entertainment district including an indoor arena, a music club, a cinema, an exhibition space and bars and restaurants. This redevelopment was undertaken by the dome's new owners, the
Anschutz Entertainment GroupThe Anschutz Entertainment Group is a sporting and music entertainment presenter and a subsidiary of The Anschutz Corporation. It is the world's largest owner of sports teams and sports events, the owner of the world’s most profitable sports and entertainment venues, and under AEG Live the world's...
, to a design by HOK SVE and
Buro HappoldBuro Happold is a professional services firm providing engineering consultancy, design, planning, project management and consulting services for all aspects of buildings, infrastructure and the environment, with its head office in Bath, Somerset...
. It cost £600 million, and the resulting venue opened to the public on 24 June 2007, with a concert by rock band
Bon JoviBon Jovi is an American rock band from Sayreville, New Jersey. Formed in 1983, Bon Jovi consists of lead singer and namesake Jon Bon Jovi , guitarist Richie Sambora, keyboardist David Bryan, drummer Tico Torres, as well as current bassist Hugh McDonald...
.
Effects on political careers
Issues related to the Dome damaged
Peter Mandelson'sPeter Benjamin Mandelson, Baron Mandelson, PC is a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament for Hartlepool from 1992 to 2004, served in a number of Cabinet positions under both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, and was a European Commissioner...
and
John PrescottJohn Leslie Prescott, Baron Prescott is a British politician who was Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007. Born in Prestatyn, Wales, he represented Hull East as the Labour Member of Parliament from 1970 to 2010...
's political careers. The scheme was seen as an early example of what some saw as
Tony Blair'sAnthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
often excessive optimism, who stated at the Dome's opening: "In the Dome we have a creation that, I believe, will truly be a beacon to the world". The fact that Mandelson's grandfather was
Herbert MorrisonHerbert Stanley Morrison, Baron Morrison of Lambeth, CH, PC was a British Labour politician; he held a various number of senior positions in the Cabinet, including Home Secretary, Foreign Secretary and Deputy Prime Minister.-Early life:Morrison was the son of a police constable and was born in...
who as a minister had been involved with the
Festival of BritainThe Festival of Britain was a national exhibition in Britain in the summer of 1951. It was organised by the government to give Britons a feeling of recovery in the aftermath of war and to promote good quality design in the rebuilding of British towns and cities. The Festival's centrepiece was in...
often was drawn on for negative comparisons.
Chronology of the project
- 1994 : Millennium Commission established by Prime Minister
A prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. In many systems, the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet, and allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime...
John MajorSir John Major, is a British Conservative politician, who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1990–1997...
and handed over to Deputy Prime Minister Michael HeseltineMichael Ray Dibdin Heseltine, Baron Heseltine, CH, PC is a British businessman, Conservative politician and patron of the Tory Reform Group. He was a Member of Parliament from 1966 to 2001 and was a prominent figure in the governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major...
.
- 1 March 1995 : Chief Executive Jennie Page
Jennifer Anne "Jennie" Page, CBE was Chief Executive of the London Millennium Dome project from 1 March 1995 until she was fired after a flawed opening night and poor early attendance at the start of 2000.-Education:...
appointed.
- 19 June 1996 : Greenwich Peninsula site selected over Birmingham by the Millennium Commission. The Birmingham NEC, Pride Park in Derby and Bromley-by-Bow
Bromley-by-Bow, historically and officially Bromley, is a place in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is an inner-city district situated east north-east of Charing Cross.-Toponymy:...
in East London were the other locations on the final short list.
- December 1996 : Government decides to support the project with public money after being unable to raise private capital.
- 19 June 1997 : New Prime Minister Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
visits Greenwich to announce that the Millennium Dome has been saved - on his personal say-so. The decision was taken only after a difficult Cabinet debate which lasted for more than an hour (Evening StandardThe Evening Standard, now styled the London Evening Standard, is a free local daily newspaper, published Monday–Friday in tabloid format in London. It is the dominant regional evening paper for London and the surrounding area, with coverage of national and international news and City of London...
- Thursday, 19 June 1997).
- 20 June 1997 : Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
appointed Peter MandelsonPeter Benjamin Mandelson, Baron Mandelson, PC is a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament for Hartlepool from 1992 to 2004, served in a number of Cabinet positions under both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, and was a European Commissioner...
to the role of Minister for the Millennium after his announcement that the beleaguered £580 million dome would go ahead (Evening StandardThe Evening Standard, now styled the London Evening Standard, is a free local daily newspaper, published Monday–Friday in tabloid format in London. It is the dominant regional evening paper for London and the surrounding area, with coverage of national and international news and City of London...
- Friday, 20 June 1997).
- 10 January 1998 : Creative director Stephen Bayley
Stephen Paul Bayley is a British design critic, cultural critic and author.-Childhood and Education:Bayley spent his childhood years in Liverpool, attending Booker Avenue County Primary School and Quarry Bank High school . The latter was also attended at an earlier date by the late Beatle John...
quits the project. He is said to have been at "loggerheads" with Peter Mandelson as to who was in charge with the project (The TimesThe Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
- Saturday, 10 January 1998).
- 23 December 1998 : Peter Mandelson resigns from government after a financial scandal.
- 4 January 1999 : Lord Falconer of Thoroton replaces Mandelson.
- May 1999 : The Jubilee Line Extension
The Jubilee Line Extension is the extension of the London Underground Jubilee line from to through south and east London. An eastward extension of the Jubilee line was first proposed in the 1970s and a modified route was constructed during the 1990s...
opens, putting the Dome on the London UndergroundThe London Underground is a rapid transit system serving a large part of Greater London and some parts of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex in England...
. This too is seen as disorderly, opening 14 months late and with station facilities not yet complete (e.g. lifts for wheelchair access)
- 22 June 1999 : structure of Dome completed.
- 31 December 1999 : the BBC Balloon was Flying during 2000 Today and used throughout 2000.
- 31 December 1999 & 1 January 2000 : VIP guests are kept waiting outside for hours because of a ticketing problem.
- 1 January 2000 : Dome structure opens to public as the Millennium Dome containing an exhibition to celebrate the third millennium.
- 5 February 2000 : Chief Executive Jennie Page sacked.
- 26 July 2000 : Culture, Media & Sport Select Committee publishes adverse report on Dome's management.
- 7 November 2000 : Thieves break in to the diamond exhibit during opening hours but are foiled by waiting police. Four men were jailed for the attempted robbery on 18 February 2002
- 9 November 2000 : National Audit Office
The National Audit Office is an independent Parliamentary body in the United Kingdom which is responsible for auditing central government departments, government agencies and non-departmental public bodies...
publishes report blaming unrealistic attendance targets for the Dome's financial problems.
- 14 November 2000 : Michael Heseltine
Michael Ray Dibdin Heseltine, Baron Heseltine, CH, PC is a British businessman, Conservative politician and patron of the Tory Reform Group. He was a Member of Parliament from 1966 to 2001 and was a prominent figure in the governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major...
(MP for Henley), the Dome's original political supporter, states "I have seen the inside story, and of course, with hindsight, all of us would do it differently" (Birmingham PostThe Birmingham Post newspaper was originally published under the name Daily Post in Birmingham, England, in 1857 by John Frederick Feeney. It was the largest selling broadsheet in the West Midlands, though it faced little if any competition in this category. It changed to tabloid size in 2008...
- Tuesday, 14 November 2000).
- 31 December 2000 : Dome closed to the public, having attracted just over six million visitors. The initial projected figure was twelve million.
- 27 February 2001 - 2 March 2001 : One Amazing Auction Sale: 4-day public auction
An auction is a process of buying and selling goods or services by offering them up for bid, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder...
with 17,000 lots of Dome/NMEC items, managed by auctioneer Henry Butcher.
- 18 December 2001 : Announcement of sale of site to Meridian Delta Ltd, 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.
- 6 December 2003 : opening of Winter Wonderland 2003
- 25 May 2005 : Anschutz Entertainment Group sells the naming rights to the former Millennium Dome to O2 plc, a British mobile phone company.
In popular culture
- During the political controversy surrounding the dome in 1996 Wonderbra
The Wonderbra is a type of push-up underwire brassiere that gained worldwide prominence in the 1990s. Although the Wonderbra name was first trademarked in the U.S. in 1935, the brand was developed in Canada. Moses Nadler, founder and majority owner of the Canadian Lady Corset Company, licensed the...
ran an advertising campaign with the slogan 'Not all domes lack public support'.
- On Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
's The Big BreakfastThe Big Breakfast was a British light entertainment television show shown on Channel 4 and S4C each weekday morning from 28 September 1992 until 29 March 2002 during which period 2,482 shows were produced. The Big Breakfast was produced by Planet 24, the production company co-owned by former...
they had the Millennium Dome Watch, in which the same clip of the dome was used with a boat and bird going past. This was to parody the inaction over its construction. On 1 April 1998, the programme ran an April Fool's Day joke in the Dome Watch slot which showed the Dome's tented roof on fire.
- Within the foundations of the Dome in 1998, a time capsule was buried by Katy Hill
Katy Hill is an English television presenter, who worked on the BBC children's magazine programme Blue Peter for five years.-Biography:...
and Richard Bacon, two of the then current presenters of the long running BBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
children's programme Blue PeterBlue Peter is the world's longest-running children's television show, having first aired in 1958. It is shown on CBBC, both in its BBC One programming block and on the CBBC channel. During its history there have been many presenters, often consisting of two women and two men at a time...
. The capsule is due to be opened in 2050.
- The Dome was featured in the pre-title sequence of the 1999 James Bond
James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...
film The World Is Not EnoughThe World Is Not Enough is the nineteenth spy film in the James Bond film series, and the third to star Pierce Brosnan as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. The film was directed by Michael Apted, with the original story and screenplay written by Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and Bruce Feirstein. It...
.
- The song "Silvertown Blues" from Mark Knopfler
Mark Freuder Knopfler, OBE is a Scottish-born British guitarist, singer, songwriter, record producer and film score composer. He is best known as the lead guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter for the British rock band Dire Straits, which he co-founded in 1977...
's album Sailing to PhiladelphiaSailing to Philadelphia is the second solo album by Mark Knopfler, released on 26 September 2000. The title track is drawn from Thomas Pynchon's novel about Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, the two English surveyors who established the border between Pennsylvania and Maryland, Delaware and...
deals with the construction of The Dome.
- Since its construction in 1999, it has been a prominent feature in the title sequence of the popular soap opera EastEnders
EastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...
, having been built in that area of London. During a climactic scene in October 1999, involving an argument and fight between Grant and Phil Mitchell, the dome was a part of the background as the scene took place directly on the opposite side of the river.
- A running joke in the sitcom Goodnight Sweetheart
Goodnight Sweetheart is a sitcom that ran for six series on BBC1 from 1993 to 1999. It stars Nicholas Lyndhurst as Gary Sparrow, an accidental time traveller who leads a double life after discovering a time portal allowing him to travel between the London of the 1990s and the same area during the...
was based on Yvonne Sparrow's involvement in the Body exhibit.
- The Dome was the site of the 1st IIFA Awards, the premier award show to honour both artistic and technical excellence of professionals in Bollywood
Bollywood is the informal term popularly used for the Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai , Maharashtra, India. The term is often incorrectly used to refer to the whole of Indian cinema; it is only a part of the total Indian film industry, which includes other production centers producing...
.
- Two books about the attempted robbery of the De Beers
De Beers is a family of companies that dominate the diamond, diamond mining, diamond trading and industrial diamond manufacturing sectors. De Beers is active in every category of industrial diamond mining: open-pit, underground, large-scale alluvial, coastal and deep sea...
diamonds from the Dome were published in 2004:Diamond Geezers - The Inside Story of the Crime of the Millennium (ISBN 1843171228) written by Kris Hollington, published by Michael O'Mara Books Ltd., and Dome Raiders - How Scotland Yard Foiled the Greatest Robbery of All Time (ISBN 1852271949) written by Jon Shatford and William Doyle, published by Virgin Books.
- The Dome was a location for the 2005 American CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
television series The Amazing Race 7The Amazing Race 7 is the seventh installment of the reality television show The Amazing Race. The Amazing Race 7 features 11 teams of two, each with a pre-existing relationship, in a race around the world...
(Episode 10), for a roadblock where the teams had to drive a double-decker busA double-decker bus is a bus that has two storeys or 'decks'. Global usage of this type of bus is more common in outer touring than in its intra-urban transportion role. Double-decker buses are also commonly found in certain parts of Europe, Asia, and former British colonies and protectorates...
around the car park.
- Gideon's Daughter is a BBC television drama written and directed by Stephen Poliakoff. Starring Bill Nighy
William Francis "Bill" Nighy is an English actor and comedian. He worked in theatre and television before his first cinema role in 1981, and made his name in television with The Men's Room in 1991, in which he played the womanizer Prof...
, Miranda RichardsonMiranda Jane Richardson is an English stage, film and television actor. She has been nominated for two Academy Awards, and has won two Golden Globes and a BAFTA during her career....
and Emily BluntEmily Olivia Leah Blunt is an English actress best known for her roles in The Devil Wears Prada , The Young Victoria , and The Adjustment Bureau . She has been nominated for two Golden Globe Awards, two London Film Critics' Circle Awards, and one BAFTA Award...
, it was broadcast in the UK on BBC OneBBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...
on 26 February 2006 and in the US on BBC AmericaBBC America is an American television network, owned and operated by BBC Worldwide, and available on both cable and satellite.-History:The channel launched on March 29, 1998, broadcasting comedy, drama and lifestyle programs from BBC Television and other British television broadcasters like ITV and...
a month later. It is set against the backdrop of New Labour's rise to power, the death of Princess Diana, and the ill-advised development of The Dome. Both Nighy and Blunt received Golden Globe Awards for their performances. The show won a Peabody Award in April 2007
- In the 2007 Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
novel Made of SteelMade of Steel is a BBC Books original novella written by Terrance Dicks and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It features the Tenth Doctor and Martha. This paperback is part of the Quick Reads Initiative sponsored by the UK government, to encourage...
(ISBN 1846072042) written by Terrance Dicks, published by BBC Books, the Cybermen have made the empty dome their base.
See also
- The O2 (London)
The O2, visually typeset in branding as The O2, is a large entertainment district on the Greenwich peninsula in South East London, England, including an indoor arena, a music club, a Cineworld cinema, an exhibition space, piazzas, bars and restaurants...
- The O2 Arena
The O2 Arena is a multi-purpose indoor arena located in the centre of The O2, a large entertainment complex on the Greenwich peninsula in London, England.With a capacity of up to 20,000 depending on the event, it is second largest...
- London Eye
The London Eye is a tall giant Ferris wheel situated on the banks of the River Thames, in London, England.It is the tallest Ferris wheel in Europe, and the most popular paid tourist attraction in the United Kingdom, visited by over 3.5 million people annually...
- Millennium Bridge (London)
The Millennium Bridge, officially known as the London Millennium Footbridge, is a steel suspension bridge for pedestrians crossing the River Thames in London, England, linking Bankside with the City. It is located between Southwark Bridge and Blackfriars Railway Bridge...
- Tensile architecture
External links