The Architects’ Journal Architecture News & Buildings
Now home to an entertainment venue, the landmark structure in Greenwich, south-east London, was opened to the public on 1 January 2000 as the Millennium Experience and featured a number of pavilions inside its 2.2 million m3 volume.
Attracting about six million visitors in its year-long operation – reportedly about half the projected number – the Millennium Dome project was dubbed a 'white elephant' by media, including the BBC, after it closed at the end of that year.
Now National Archives files released on Saturday (31 December) have revealed that the then director of the Science Museum, Lindsay Sharp, had lobbied the prime minister of the day, Tony Blair, to move the dome to a site in Swindon, the BBC and The Guardian reported.
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In a letter, Sharp suggested the dome could be moved to a former military airfield at Wroughton on the outskirts of Swindon, where it could become ‘a major new public facility devoted to interactivity and immersively exhibiting the latest in practical aspects and research into sustainability’.
In the letter, Sharp admitted he did not know whether it was possible to move the dome and its dozen 100m-high masts from London to Swindon but pointed out the move would free up the site in Greenwich for redevelopment.
The newly released files show that Blair rejected the suggestion. The structure was bought by Meridian Delta, which redeveloped the site as the O2 Arena, opening in 2005.
The Science Museum is currently moving 300,000 items from its collection to a new National Collection Centre on the former airfield site in Swindon once considered for the dome, into a collection facility and a wider site masterplan designed by Sam Jacob Studio.
The centre will be opened to the public in 2024.
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Source:Shutterstock
Millennium Dome by Richard Rogers Partnership and Buro Happold
Comment: Mike Davies, architect and co-founder of RSHP
The Swindon move was one of several suggestions considered by the government for the after-use of the Millennium Dome, following its use for the Millennium year celebrations.
Now known as the O2, and now 23 years old, the Dome structure was designed as an entirely modular system and is the lightest single volume public enclosure of its area anywhere in the world.
It was designed to be an easily and rapidly fabricated, built and demounted transportable lightweight structure. It could thus be erected on another site anywhere in the UK without great difficulty.
It could have been erected on another site without great difficulty
The aerial Dome structure represented less than 7 per cent of the budget for the whole Millennium Experience project.
The iconic envelope structure cost £43 million pounds in year 2000 money – so was built at a cost lower per square metre than that of a typical supermarket shed.
The completed aerial structure was handed over to the Millennium Experience Company – the government's project team – in September 1998, ready for 15 months of fit-out of the interior to be ready for the start of the Millennium – the ultimate immovable deadline.
Unlike many government and large-scale construction projects, the Dome, now the O2- was built on time and with the lowest shell budget per square metre of any large-scale public building.
Designed for a minimum lifespan of 25 years, the Dome will certainly last far longer with regular inspection and maintenance.
RSHP, as the architects of the great Dome, are delighted that the O2 has become the world's top entertainment venue, welcoming almost nine million people every year.
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