Qualla: Millennium Dome

Millennium Dome: Introduction

Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit CGP Grey, CC BY 2.0. It is 365 metres across, one for every day of the year. It is 52 metres high in the middle, one for every week. Twelve yellow steel masts, each 100 metres tall, hold up its white Teflon-coated canopy, one for every month, or every hour on a clock face, in homage to the Greenwich Mean Time that runs along the meridian a few metres to the west. The Millennium Dome is the largest building of its type in the world. It is also one of the most cordially despised buildings ever erected in Britain, and one of the most successful conversions in modern entertainment. Both things are true. Both happened on the same Greenwich Peninsula site.

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Image: CGP Grey | CC BY 2.0

Millennium Dome: A Festival to Mark the Year 2000

Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Chmee2, CC BY-SA 3.0. The idea began modestly under John Major's Conservative government in the mid-1990s: a Festival of Britain-style showcase to mark the millennium. When Tony Blair's Labour government took over in 1997, the project was greatly expanded in scope, scale and cost. Construction began i...

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Image: Chmee2 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Millennium Dome: The Year of the Experience

Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit CGP Grey, CC BY 2.0. The Millennium Experience opened to the public on 1 January 2000, after a private New Year's Eve celebration attended by Queen Elizabeth II. The interior was divided into fourteen themed zones: Body, Faith, Mind, Self-Portrait, Work, Learning, Rest, Play, Talk, Money, Journey, Sh...

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Image: CGP Grey | CC BY 2.0

Millennium Dome: The Press Pile-On

Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mike Prior, CC BY-SA 4.0. By any objective measure, 87 percent of those who actually visited the Dome said they were satisfied with their day. But the press was relentless. The ticketing chaos on the opening night, when VIP guests including newspaper editors were kept waiting outside in the cold for hours...

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Image: Mike Prior | CC BY-SA 4.0

Millennium Dome: The Empty Year, and Then the Pivot

Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit rp72, CC BY 2.0. After closure, the Dome sat largely empty and expensive, costing the government over 1 million pounds a month to maintain. The political careers of Peter Mandelson and John Prescott took knocks. Selling the site proved difficult. In December 2001 a deal was reached: Meridian Delt...

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Image: rp72 | CC BY 2.0

Millennium Dome: The Dome That Refused To Fail

Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. By any contemporary measure, The O2 has become one of the most commercially successful entertainment venues in the world. The O2 Arena routinely tops global rankings of best-selling concert venues. The 2012 Olympics held artistic gymnastics here, calling the venue the North Green...

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Image: Public domain