Dome there, done that - still stinks

In a vain attempt to find some redemption for the Millennium Dome I managed to persuade Dave to take a walk around the Greenwich Peninsular. It was a fantastically sunny day, so we felt that we had to do something "out", and I thought that it might be nice to see what they had done with the area around the Dome. Not such a good idea as it turned out. The Dome itself seems to have done absolutely nothing to contribute towards the regeneration of the area - if anything it is worse now, and it still stinks - literally. So bad you almost want to retch.

Walking along the Thames footpath around the outer circumference of the Dome is a pretty bleak, depressing and uninspiring experience. The Dome was intended to be an outwardly expressive, iconic "building", but the outside is mostly fenced-off. All you see when you walk around the perimeter are rubbish bins, vans, loading bays, crates, sheds, portaloos, stacks of various gear, general rubbish, and all sorts of other service paraphernalia. It is really sad and depressing that what what was originally a nice riverside general circulation area now resembles a trashed back alley. Even the former meridian plaza area, which I recall was quite nicely done for the original 2000 exhibition, is now just a trailer park for the cast and crew of the semi-permanent Afrika! show in it's tacky plastic tent alongside. Shame on you O2for allowing the Dome and its public spaces (both of which were paid for from public funds) to be so appalingly treated. I thought that the inside was pretty awful when we visited it last year (Blog: New tack and old chic), but this was worse.

Continuing our walk down the west side of the Greenwich Peninsular we were at least expecting to see some evidence of physical or economic regeneration - the "knock-on effect" that was the main point of building the Dome in the first place. But nothing. Just the same old decrepit and derelict industrial riverside that it was when I first walked along here 20 years ago.And some of those factories really stink. It is difficult, I know, as these places are presumably productive and provide employment, but there seems little prospect of renewal and regeneration while they continue to operate. And the millions of pounds of public money pumped into the Dome have clearly had no effect whatsoever.

It was with some relief that on contnuing on towards Greenwich proper we arrived at one of our favourite pubs (and one of Greenwich's better kept secrets) - The Cutty Sark - for a very welcome pint.

New tack and old chic

Today we went over to North Greenwich to have a look at the recently reopened millennium dome - now renamed The O2. We were not really sure what to expect, but I have to say that they have done a pretty uninspiring job of fitting it out. There seems to have been a complete lack of imagination in designing the new buildings and structures inside. Instead of taking advantage of the huge covered space, they have crammed it with traditional buildings along a traditional street pattern. The result is quite claustrophobic in parts, and all rather pointless. To make matters worse, most of the buildings have been designed in a chinzy fake art deco style, giving it all a kind of tawdry mock Miami Beach feel (complete with fake palm trees). As a result, there is nothing special here, it is just like being in any mediocre shopping mall, except there are no shops - just a lot of franchised overpriced restaurants.

What a wasted oportunity. When you are building under a giant weatherproof tent you don't need walls, windows, roofs (or even doors) in the traditional sense. They could have done some really great stuff in here, but what you have is actually worse than the original Millennium contents (and some of that was quite poor). Shame on the developers/designers for turning out this insipid tat.


Depressed by the dull and unimaginative experience of the O2, we decided to get a riverbus on Thames Clippers new scheduled service between the O2 and Waterloo, to go and take a look at the also recently reopened Festival Hall. Here the opportunity for innovation was much more limited as it is a listed building (even the carpet is listed). However, the refurbishment of the interior seems to have gone quite well (even if it is clearly not quite finished yet). The original layout is virtually identical, but they have managed to create more space and keep (improve even) the light and airy feel of the lobby and foyer spaces. We had a good look around (at my insistance - I don't think that Dave was that interested really), and it is all still there - all the old places, the tucked-away lobby areas, they just seem to be a bit bigger now. It will be interesting to see how it all works when there is a concert on.

Of course the carpet is still there (at least it is the same design, but new carpet), and the overwhelming feel is light-natural-beige, and the stylish 50s chic that we love the Festival Hall so much for. So I am quite encouraged overall, but we didn't get to see inside the auditorium itself. That will probably be the subject of another blog.