Millennium Dome

The Millennium Dome, also referred to simply as The Dome, is the original name of a large dome-shaped building originally used to house the Millennium Experience, a major exhibition celebrating the beginning of the third millennium. It is the ninth largest building in the world by usable volume. Located on the Greenwich Peninsula in South East London, England, the exhibition was open to the public from 1 January to 31 December 2000. The project and exhibition was highly political and attracted barely half the 12 million customers its sponsors forecast, so was deemed a failure by the press. All the original exhibition elements were sold on or dismantled.

In a 2005 report, the cost of selling the Dome and surrounding land and managing the Dome until the deal was closed was £28.7 million. The value of the 48 acres occupied by the Dome was estimated at £48 million, which could have been realised by demolishing the structure, but it was considered preferable to preserve the Dome. The structure itself still exists, and it is now a key exterior feature of The O2.

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