I think that I visited the place twice, once with school and again as a family trip. I remember crowds and exhibitions that were all a bit poor. And some kind of a big show that had lots of sparks. And possibly a trapeze.

And it cost loads.

It was indeed rubbish. In fairness now as the O2 its and excellent music venue

I loved it. Lots of interesting sciencey and arty stuff and weird stuff to look at. And a specially recorded one-off episode of blackadder. The French guy who was running it shook everyone’s hand as we left as well. Fun!

And of course a real life diamond heist cunningly thwarted by the Met’s finest whilst the public were meandering around the place.

Never bothered back then. All seemed a bit naff.

As said though, as the O2 it’s pretty good. Just don’t buy cheap seats if you are afraid of heights or don’t like looking at insect sized performers.

Excellent building, shame the exhibits

I had forgotten about that robbery. Didn’t they plan to use a JCB or similar?

I remember Dome Watch on the Big Breakfast.
I would only go for a gig, visiting the place itself during the day is a pretty miserable experience.

Only visited as the O2 and found it good venue for music and a quick eat if in the area.

Saw Suede and some old Sokol’ hair metal bands there and it was great.

of course a real life diamond heist cunningly thwarted by the Met’s finest whilst the public were meandering around the place.

that’ll be me …. Did wonder why there was a jcb there….

Only found out on tube home when I saw it on someone’s paper….didn’t think it was that bad a day out thou…

We studied it on my course at uny . Basically yes it was crass but it was a catalyst to regenerate the area , which it did .

Plus Prince and Led Zeppelin have played there. All good things

Just a bauble for doe-eyed tourists from out f town to gawp at, kept them away form other parts of the city so all good. Don’t know anyone who went apart from my mum with the women’s institute, they loved it. Enough said.

It was almost funny, watching them try and decide what to put in it. “We’re building a dome, hurrah!” “But what’s going to go inside it?” “Dunno, hadn’t thought that far ahead.” But the arena’s OK and I liked that weird indoor street of pubs and that.

Had two incredible new year nights there when Ministry of Sound took the place over. Reach for the lasers…

Terrible but amusing at times. The funniest part was the robotic public lice on the human body zone.

It was an interesting experiment badly done.

I blame the Tories….no, wait….

Oh Jesus I was I was there on millennium eve, Tony, Cherie, Queenie and Jools, it was was really really sh*te,………

Tony Blair’s finest hour!
As a venue, though, it’s excellent; and Indigo 2 isn’t bad, either.
The main arena is blessed with uninterrupted sight lines. Unlike any other large venue I’ve ever been to.

I remember the queen very awkwardly singing along to auld lang syne on the telly. And it was in a bond film too! Never went until it was the O2 to see Peter Kay.

I also seem to remember Can-UK advertising for riggers during it’s construction. I was a poor student at the time and seeing the advert in Pete’s Eats in Llanberis I was considering it, being an OK and safe climber. Some bloke notices my interest and starts really disparaging the company and the Dome. Enough for me to lose interest in working there.

I worked on a digital installation for the exhibition. It was under funded and rushed. Other than it being a bit crap the only other thing I remember was having to deliver the final set of files to the company overseeing the exhibition on the night of their Christmas party.

Got to visit the dome a couple of times during the construction but haven’t been back since it opened to the public.

It was an interesting experiment badly done.
I blame the Tories….no, wait.

.

And so you should without them it was unlikely to have been built as it was their idea.

The world’s most expensive big top. 😡

I also seem to remember Can-UK advertising for riggers during it’s construction.

Must remember to put my reading glasses on first thing in the morning.

The funniest part was the robotic public lice on the human body zone.

I went to the exhibition and that is the ONLY thing I remember about it.

Didn’t go to the opening, but have been many times since. C2C was there a few weeks ago and that was excellent. I’m glad it’s opened up the area, if you’d seen the pittyfull state the area was in before you’d fully understand why it was built where it was, perfect surroundings and ideal to capture both visual and regeneration spirit. Also, Greenwich is only a few minutes away.
If you pop on over there now, there is a whole load of redevelopment with new tower blocks and infrastructure. it’s badly needed, and wanted.
The area has been transformed dramatically, it’s part of the tourist trail, its all a living breathing space where once was gravel pits and wasteland and remnants of the docks.
There are plans for a swanky Cruise Port to be built there too, once thats in it’ll all be merged into Greenwich and will, for some part, be rightly known as Greenwich Peninsular.

So, things many many years later “Only got better”

Ambrose – Member
I think that I visited the place twice, once with school

As a teacher? If not, I didn’t realise that you were so much younger than me! 🙂

The world’s most expensive big top.

Not really, the build cost was £43million, or around £5000/ m2. Quite a lot of money admittedly, but not off-the-scale for that type of project.

God alone knows what the other £700 million was spent on.

A serious gravy train I think.

I also seem to remember Can-UK advertising for riggers during it’s construction. I was a poor student at the time and seeing the advert in Pete’s Eats in Llanberis I was considering it, being an OK and safe climber. Some bloke notices my interest and starts really disparaging the company and the Dome. Enough for me to lose interest in working there.

There was some pretty sharp practice going on during the fit out some of the contracts had gone to companies that weren’t experienced enough for the scale of project and their hired in crews were taking the piss out of them – a friend was working their (can’t remember if he was doing sound or light equipment or both) he’d work the day shift dutifully striving to hit deadlines and the night shift would spend the night un-doing peoples work to string the job out.

It got a lot of flack at the time – mostly by upsetting a few drunk journalists on the opening night. Part of the problem was the scale of the venue dwarfed the audience – the place could seem very empty, this was emphasised by the decision not to use the parking nearest the venue and encourage people to arrive by public transport so you walked through acres of empty carpark to get there. You could compare that to the queues of people lining up for the millennium wheel and feel that the dome was a failure and the wheel a success. But the wheel can’t actually accommodate very many people or entertain them for very long. The reality was the Dome was the most-visited paid for attraction that year by quite a margin

It was under funded

Not a phrase to be used in relation to the minellium dome or Olympic stadii

Not a phrase to be used in relation to the minellium dome or Olympic stadii

I didn’t. I used the phrase in relation to the installation that I worked on.

I’d be surprised if many of the exhibition’s installations weren’t the same. It felt at the time as though the contents of the dome were only really considered once most of the money had been spent.