Millennium Dome
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The Millennium Dome , or simply The Dome, is a large dome shaped building on the Greenwich peninsula in south-east London, the United Kingdom, at grid reference Template:Gbmappingsmall. In May 2005, it was announced a sponsorship deal involving O2 would see it being renamed The O2. It is served by North Greenwich tube station on the Jubilee line, which was opened just before the Dome.
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Construction
The Dome is the largest single roofed structure in the world. Externally it appears as a large, brilliant white marquee with twelve 95 m-high yellow-painted support towers. In plan view it is circular, 365 m in diameter, with scalloped edges. It has become one of the United Kingdom's most easily recognised 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 building structure was engineered by Buro Happold, and the entire roof structure actually weighs less than the air contained within the building. Although called a dome it is not strictly one as it is not self supporting but is a mast-supported, dome-shaped cable network. <ref> ArchitectureWeek.com http://www.architectureweek.com/2003/0326/building_1-2.html </ref>
The canopy is made of PTFE coated glass fibre fabric, a durable and weather-resistant plastic, and is 50 m 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 then 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".
Background to the Dome Project
The Dome project was conceived, originally on a somewhat smaller scale, under John Major's Conservative government, as a Festival of Britain or World's Fair-type showcase to celebrate the third millennium. The incoming Labour government elected in 1997 under Tony Blair, 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 BBC correspondent Robert Orchard 'the Dome was to be highlighted as a glittering New Labour achievement in the next election manifesto.'
Millennium celebrations
During the whole of 2000 the Dome was open to the public, and contained a large number of attractions and exhibits.
The exhibits
A major problem was that, having been given the objective of creating an exhibition now substantially inflated from the original conception, 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 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 transport, was one of the few singled out for praise.
The central stage show was accompanied by music composed by Peter Gabriel and an acrobatic cast of 160. The show was performed 999 times over the course of the year. Throughout the year, the specially-commissioned film Blackadder: Back & Forth was shown in a separate cinema on the site. These features escaped a great deal of the criticism that was heaped on the rest of the project, although the lyrics and meaning of the stage show were considered difficult to follow by many, and the Blackadder film was noted for being neither as sharp or funny as the original four series and specials. The music from the stage show was later released on Gabriel's album Ovo (complete with lyrics). There is apparently no video record of the show, though arguably it would be difficult to capture a show of such large scale on video. Had the higher forecasts of attendance proved correct, then the visitors' enjoyment could have been reduced by queueing and congestion.
There was also the McDonald's 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. One composer, Robert Steadman, wrote new compositions for both the City of Nottingham and Nottinghamshire LEAs.
Financial and management 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. Numerous changes at management and Board level, before and during the exhibition, had only limited, if any, results. Press reports suggested that 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 — slightly more than the 6 million that attended the Festival of Britain, but that ran only from May to September.
The total cost of the Millennium Dome at the liquidation of the New Millennium Experience Company in 2002, according to the UK National Audit Office [1], 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. [2]
The aftermath
The Dome is now normally closed. The failure of the project to match the hype became and remains a continuing embarrassment to the Labour government. 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. It is also hoped to relocate some of London's tertiary education establishments to the site. Meridian Delta is backed by the American billionaire Philip Anschutz, who has interests in oil, railways, 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 aftermath 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
On its conversion into a large indoor arena, which should be completed 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. It will host the 2009 World Gymnastics Championships. At the 2012 Summer Olympic Games it will be used for 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 were also considered.
- 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, putting the Dome on 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.
- July 26 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 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.
- 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, made by Electronic Arts.
Nicknames
The Dome has received a number of (usually derisive) nicknames since its conception, the most widespread being Tony's Tent as it was seen by many as Prime Minister Tony Blair's pet project, and the manner in which it soaked up large amounts of public money; although the idea of the previous Conservative government.
See also
- Jahrtausendturm (Millennium Tower) in Magdeburg, Germany - The second highest wooden tower in the world
- London Eye
- List of world records
Notes and references
External links
- Millennium Commission page on the "Millennium Experience"
- The Millennium Dome: A Collection One individual's collection of Millennium Dome objects.
- Winter Wonderland 2003 - This is from the Wayback Machine on www.archive.org, as the original site is now defunct. Unfortunately, images have not been archived.
- Aerial view of the Millennium Dome - This is the impressive http://maps.google.com image of the Dome.
- Millennium Dome Experience and Critique
- Dome and Domer: The Increasingly Stupid Story of the Millennium Dome
- 3D model of the dome for use in Google Earth.de:Millennium Dome
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