02 Arena

02 ARENA

The 02 Arena is situated on the Greenwich peninsula in East London. The 02 Arena is a multi purpose indoor arena with a capacity of up to twenty-three thousand people, making it one of the largest indoor arenas in Europe. It is best known as a music venue and since opening it has played host to some of the world’s best acts and most famous rock and pop stars. Such has been its success that it is now the third most popular venue worldwide for concerts and family shows and the venue was named the world’s best by Pollstar in 2009. The late Michael Jackson was booked to play fifty dates at the arena at the time of his death and all of the tickets sold out within a few hours of their release. The 02 Arena is used for many other events besides concerts, the ground surface can be transferred into an ice rink or basketball court. It is also suitable as an exhibition space, conference area and private hire venue. There is also a music club, a cinema, bars and restaurants. During the 2012 London Olympics the 02 Arena will be used for a number of events.

The 02 Arena was designed to minimize echoing, which is a problem that has affected many other London venues. The 02 Arena is housed within the ‘Millennium Dome’ which was built as a centrepiece for the millennium projects held in London. Very little was retained besides the shell of the dome and the 02 Arena takes up just forty per cent of the total dome structure. In the immediate years after the millennium celebrations the dome remained empty, reputedly costing one million pounds a month to maintain and upkeep. Portentously, the dome reopened as the 02 Arena on 24th June 2007, the very same day that Tony Blair resigned as prime minister. Purchased by the Anschutz Entertainment Group, they sold the naming rights to the 02 telecommunications group in a six million pounds a year deal.

Plans to build a dome to celebrate the beginning of the third millennium were seeded by the final Conservative government of the twentieth century and the Dome of Discovery, built for the Festival of Britain in 1951, was to be the inspiration. Michael Heseltine, the deputy prime minister of the day, was at the time busy masterminding the regeneration of the Thames Gateway and the Greenwich Peninsula proved the logical location for such a project. In 1985 a complex of gasworks had closed after ninety-six years and the brown field site was awaiting a clean-up operation. Conveniently, the site fell directly over the Greenwich Meridian Line, which suited the ‘time-line’ theme to the occasion.

The incoming New Labour government of 1997 embraced and expanded the project and media across the four compass points of the world took an interest. It is twice the size of America’s Georgia dome and in the USA it quickly became known as the ‘billion dollar dome’. Built by Richard Rogers, it won the Royal Academy of Engineering’s prestigious MacRobert Award. The Millennium Dome is the largest fabric structure in the world. A dozen, one hundred metres high yellow painted steel towers support forty-three miles of high strength cables. These in turn pull the tensional fabric so taught that it could easily support the weight of a jumbo jet. Covering twenty acres, it is the biggest roof in the world and ten cathedrals the size of St Paul’s in London could be contained within. The top of the dome is fifty-two metres high in the centre, meaning that should it be placed over Trafalgar Square, Nelson’s Column would fit comfortably inside. If the Millennium Dome was tipped upside down and placed beneath the Niagara Falls, it would take an astonishing ten minutes to fill with water. The dome wouldn’t stay filled with Niagara River water for long, as its symmetry is interrupted by a large hole through which a ventilation shaft for the Blackwell Tunnel rises. All things said, it is no wonder that the dome is one of London’s most recognisable landmarks!

The dome drew considerable political controversy. Tony Blair called it a, ‘beacon to the world’ but many commentators in the press called it an example of Blair’s excessive, wasteful, evangelical optimism. New Labour held a New Year’s Eve party with an exuberant Tony Blair seizing hold of the Queen’s hand and shaking it around during their singing of Auld Lang Syne. The following day ‘The Millennium Experience’ opened and ran from 1 January 2000 to 31 December 2000. The exhibition was derided by the press but proved popular with the public, indeed it was the most popular tourist attraction of 2000 pushing Alton Towers, the previous top spot holder, into third place. Most visitors felt the entry fee was worth the price for the trapeze show alone, regardless of the blandness of some of the themed zones with different experiences subsidized by National Lottery ticket purchasers. Nevertheless only half of the twelve million expected visitors actually attended, leading to financial problems. Its current use as the 02 Arena has lead to thriving business and continued regeneration, which was always the ultimate plan for the once bleak and abandoned Greenwich peninsula.

The 02 Arena is at Peninsula Square, London SE10 0DX and the closest tube, London Underground, is North Greenwich.

Where to view 02 Arena and video clips of London
London in Motion has some of the best London Stock Footage and London Library Footage with moving clips of many of the above mentioned places to see, are available to browse through by simply visiting the ‘02 Arena’ category of this website.  New additions of London video clips are being frequently uploaded and further categories will be appearing over the coming months.