Hopefully the American question in question did a better job in London than they did here in Boston. The tunnel they built here turned out to be years late, leaks constantly, and requires nearly constant maintenance to keep it from collapsing.
I was part of the Millennium Dome opening ceremony. Those of you with a good memory might recall a group of children running along a platform and pulling down a massive curtain encircling the dome, marking the official opening (there's video of it knocking around on TH-cam) - I was one of them. I totally understand the disappointment and cynicism, but it'll always be a special place for me. A lot has changed since then.
I don't understand it at all. I visited the Dome about 5 times during the year 2000 and thought it was fantastic each time. The media were determined to give it negative coverage - I'm not sure why. I heard a rumour that because the media were kept waiting in the cold outside a tube station on the way to the dome on 31st December 1999 because of a security alert they were hell-bent on giving it bad coverage regardless of what it was really like.
@@ajs41 I loved it, although obviously my experience was quite different from that of the general public - I watched them building it as we started rehearsals for the ceremony months in advance. I think it's just our natural sense of pessimism in this country. There was a similar sense of dread leading up to and during the Olympics, but that was brilliant as far as I remember.
@@ajs41 I visited around May 2000 and thought it was very good. I think the problem was that a lot of people thought it would be some kind of theme park, a sort of a mini Alton Towers.
@@ajs41 I was three and a half when I went, my earliest memories are of the exhibition, I can remember things so distinctly that when I revisited through TH-cam videos decades later I was shocked at how close my memories resembled them. I remember the buzz of the millennium and I remember knowing that going to the exhibition was a very special event. And mostly I remember having a really good time... sadly you’re right, the media were determined to creative the narrative of failure as bad news sells. I’d love for us to have a government now who invested heavily in cultural and educational events.
I was there at the Dome as 1999 morphed into 2000, working for one of our national broadcasters. I can't remember anything about the show but I travelled there by the Jubilee line. By the time we'd finished wrapping up after the event the audience had long gone and so had the last train. Security was tight. We were taken to a hotel on a chartered coach but it had to wait for us outside the exclusion zone so we ended up walking for about half an hour. I think I'll give the next millennium celebrations a miss.
I actually worked in the Millenium Dome during the whole year it was opened. Although I wasn't hired directly by the Millenium company. Instead, I was hired by Granada Retail and Catering. They opened a tea shop under the Typhoo brand inside the dome. We sold various teas, coffees, sandwiches etc. I was 20 years old back then. Shame it didn't last longer because I would have stayed.
When it opened, the station was known as "North Greenwich for the Dome"; the idea was that (rather like the Olympics 12 years later) you had to go by public transport or not at all. In my case, not at all, although I have since been to an ice show there. Meanwhile, my late father, as a member of ARICS, was invited to visit the Dome when it was under construction and a vast empty space. He said it was incredibly impressive! For some time in the mid- 2000s, I worked at an office just across the river from it, when it was empty and unloved and a white elephant - its rescue came just in time!
I don't care what anyone says, I like the dome. Granted, it was expensive and the exhibition was not the best, but the actual structure itself is really interesting when you get up close to it. 💚🐇🐴💚
I remember my Year 6 school trip to the Millennium Dome, it will and forever be the MD to me! Was supposed to be going to a gig there last April, which has been pushed back to next April now, so it'll be 22 years since I last saw it up close.
21 years later and how quickly we forget all that and thank you for the very useful reminder about the Dome. I did actually visit it in 2000 but I really cannot remember what was in it. In a funny sort of way the Greenwich Peninsula has gained a renaissance with me, when I visit London, I really enjoy visiting the Emirates Cable Car and riding across the Thames I love the views of London whether it be by day or night. I can say I am moved by the Dome at all and rather see it as an eyesore. In recent years the area around it has gained a little more ‘soul’.
i visited the Millenium Dome around April 2000. Yeah, it wasn't really up to much - in fact the best thing about it WAS the free (as in not costing any extra on top of the dome entry fee) Blackadder film. One memory is of one of the large spacious toilets (in the dome, not the Blackadder film!) where there was a square with an array of urinals on 3 sides - and the "interesting" situation of female cleaners continuously cleaning the urinals in between the men using them! Being of a modest disposition I waited for a cubicle to become free...
I was confused and so had a quick google, and thus learned that North Greenwich station is in a completely different area to the historic North Greenwich, which was on the north side of the Thames; and I also learned that I was remembering North Greenwich as the name for the unrelated area of North Woolwich, which used to be part of Kent despite being also on the north side of the Thames. Ooph!
You are definitely a JH scholar! We were talking about the old Greenwich Hospital today but had to clarify that we didn't mean the Old Greenwich Hospital... Not sure if you're of an age where you remember Soap on TV....
I went to the Dome and I enjoyed the day there - a lot of people were expecting an Alton Towers experience and instead they got a History Museum experience and I think that coloured the reactions. Anything with giant pube lice as the first exhibit is a winner in my books.
I "did" the Dome... but I didn't bother watching the Blackadder episode, because I thought, "what's the point of travelling all this way and paying for a real-life experience, only to watch a television episode?" It says something that many people found it the "highlight" of the whole experience.. There was a ticketing system for the much-hyped "Exhibition of Ourselves", and provision for long, zig-zagging queues... but... hardly anyone else there!
We visited the Dome for my birthday, just a day after the new year - I thought it was fantastic. Still have fond memories of the various parts; the biggest let down for me is that they didn't keep it open for longer than a year.
My sister used to live in Greenwich and once a month we would go to the O2 together to see a movie in the cinema inside. The first time I visited the station back in 2004 I was surprised how big, grand and new it was. Well now I know why! Good Times. Now that I'm no longer living in the UK, visiting the O2 and its station has become a far-fetched dream for me rather than an actual possibility.
I actually enjoyed Blackadder at the Dome, which was both the first time I watched Blackadder and one of the few positive parts of the day. Otherwise, the day was just from what I can recount a load of balls, both figuratively and literally.
I thought North Greenwich station should have been known as "Millennium Dome" during the year 2000. I visited the Dome about 5 times that year. I thought it was pretty fantastic and the negative media coverage wasn't justified.
I was an apprentice electrician working for an electrical ontract company at a time when SEGAS (South Eastern Gas Board) still operated the gas works. We were involved with heavy electrical installations of new cabling and monitoring equipment in readiness for the nationwide conversion to natural gas and much of the old own gas production plant had been shut down, but still in place. It was the largest gas works on the South side of the Thames - Beckton being the Northern equivelant and always wondered what happened to the industrial railway steam loco that was part of the rail system around the place, and lay abandoned outside its shed on the river frontage. They had a full blown restaurant and social club on site and was frequented on numerous occasions. The Dome - alias 'Tony's Tent' as it was described by a river boat guide some years later - was built on the tar and products wells!
I remember, throughout the year 2000, the Millennium Dome Exhibition was almost always referred to in the news as "the troubled attraction." Hardly an incentive for those considering a visit there. And when it closed, it was in mothballs for a number of years before it finally reopened as the o2.
I remember just before Christmas 2003, it briefly reopened as The indoor Winter Wonderland…I went there for my Birthday. We had wristbands but some of the rides the wristbands weren’t valid and had to pay again! 🙄
I started my Underground career at both North Greenwich and Canary Wharf. For about 6 months from mid 2000 I and my colleagues would wearily and very much alone be forced to walk the platforms as the trains rolled through. We would count the tiles. Watch the mice dance the rails. Munch our way through chocolate bars until relieved by the next poor victim placed into solitude. The most exciting event was probably the massive rave on New Year’s Eve 2000/2001. The staff were lovely. The location was not. Would love to see a video on Canary Wharf. Would be happy to add any info if you have questions. Love the vids.
I was working at an American news magazine in the late 1990s. Mr. Hazzard's recounting is an excellent overview of the blow-by-blow nonsense I was chuckling over in my office in New York. I still refer to one of the principals as "Lord Falconer of the Dome" 😆 When I finally did get to see it (in summer of 2000) I was less impressed by the Dome and the festival than I was with riding on the new Jubilee line extension. I guess I'll never learn. Although, the Dome did feature in a Bond film AND had the second largest McDonald's in Europe. What can I say - some of us are never satisfied.
Back in 2010, I was living in Charlton. I once overheard a tourist ask a tired-looking member of LU staff at the top of the escalators how to get to the Millennium Dome, and get the reply "go back in time ten years then go through those doors" :)
I went on a school trip to the Millennium Dome. I've heard people talk about the Great Exhibition and the Festival of Britain, but it feels weird to hear something that I remember happening being talked about in the same context! That's often regarded as a sign of getting old, but strangely enough it doesn't make me feel old!
One minor bit of trivia relatable to the Dome and The Jubilee Line at North Greenwich. TfL had in place a contingency plan for the event of the Jubilee Line being disrupted and the need to convey passengers…it consisted of fleets of Secondhand Buses parked in a car park out of sight…with Drivers sitting inside awaiting to be called out. The buses would go through Blackwall Tunnel to either Canning Town or Stratford where people could use alternative routes to get about. Reportedly they were called out a dozen or so times…only to get to North Greenwich to be told to Stand Down again as the Jubilee Line was running again, and passengers told to return to the Tube!
I remember when the first section of the JLE opened between Stratford and North Greenwich. It seemed so odd having this little line between two then-unappealing places. A bit like having an airline between Scunthorpe and Tashkent.
North Greenwich station is actually three time as big as the public are aware due to all the non public areas such as staff accommodation, train crew rest rooms etc. I remember having to go through a car wash before being allowed to leave site during the construction of the station so any contaminates didn't leave site.
I just admire your healthy cynicism. Whenever the politicians get involved in planning, piss-ups and breweries spring to mind. Keep the videos coming, Jago.
A good friend of mine visited the Millennium Dome a few days after it opened. He said that it, and everything it contained were utter shite. A similar opinion to the much vaunted 'River Of Fire': I worked the night of 31-12-99 - 01-01-00, doing a job at a site overlooking my town, with orders to inform my boss if everything went pear shaped, as the doom mongers had been saying. Midnight came, the electricity stayed on, and people set off a lot of fireworks. I rang my parents, to wish them a happy new year, and asked dad what the river of fire had looked like. He laughed, and said: "Less of a river of fire. More like a dribble of piss, boy." I heard Mum, in the background, berating him for the use of the 'P' word, and then laughing. They'd had a few.
I went to the dome once in 2000 and really enjoyed it. I remember a whole load of bendy buses parked up outside. I went by coach only managed to get there once in five attempts as all the other coaches were cancelled. I thought it was great I saw 3 zones and the blackadder film twice! Was gutted when they closed it, it could have been a great thing for london. The media in this country has a lot to answer for!
An interesting story! I wonder what would have happened if the Dome had been in Birmingham.. Also, between this and your former tramway video.. Mark Knopfler's Silvertown Blues is going to be on my playlist awhile longer yet! Finally.. having been to the Dome when it opened.. I personally liked the Blackadder episode. So There 😋😉 That aside.. thanks for another great story 👍
The Jubilee Line is a story unto itself of course. The name intended to reflect the intended year of opening, 1977, the Queen's Silver Jubilee. However, it was 2 years after the Silver Jubilee that the Jubilee Line actually opened from Stanmore to Charing Cross in 1979. Like Crossrail, it's another example of outside interference in unnecessarily renaming the project to reflect the Queen in some way
To be technically correct, the JLE was ready over a year before the millennium. The new millennium began on 1/1/2001 (there was never a year zero). All the 2000ers were a year early, as was the dome.
If I remember rightly, the Swiss (correctly) celebrated the start of the new millennium on 1/1/2001. The lack of basic numeracy here is fairly typical in this day and age.
Can't remember the exact year, but in the late 90's I was working with a number of ISP customers at Telehouse just opposite the Millennium Dome site when I went up to the roof there with one of the senior managers to look down on and over the building site. Working in Telecoms I jokingly suggested that there was some telecoms contracts to be won there. A short while later it was announced that Telehouse had themselves done that contract. It was interesting even impressive over many subsequent visits to watch the development there. Shame I never got any photos on any of my many visits.
And because the Gas Business did not have the money to clean the area up, they use the Public money to clean up the area for the Dome. Same as the 2012 London Olympics, get the public to pay for the clean up of this old brownfield site instead of the Businesses that made the mess.
It's funny how the dome went from complete disaster in government hands to massive commercial success in private hands. Granted they got a remarkably good deal on the thing but it's in the end achieved everything the dome originally set out to do and more - probably, ultimately, worth the investment from taxpayers.
I'm from the area too. In my mind the divide between Greenwich and Charlton has always been the flyover for the Blackwell Tunnel approach, although obviously that's just my subjective opinion.
I went to the Dome with my family - I’d have been 19 at the time. It was… ok, but there just didn’t seem much point to it. Some of the zones were good, some were dull. The acrobatic thing in the middle was not bad, although Peter Gabriel’s soundtrack was peculiar from memory. I’ve never been back as I would need to remortgage my house to watch a gig there these days and I understand the acoustics aren’t great and the cheap seats are vertigo inducing….
Nice to see some positive comments about the good ol' Millennium Dome. We went almost at the end of the year thinking we really ought to see it before it closed, and we enjoyed the day. OK, it wasn't earth-shattering, but it was certainly interesting. I remember the Body Zone, the Transport Zone and the Rest Zone - I always thought it was a shame the last-named couldn't be transported to the City and used as a chill-out place for stressed office workers. The bad press was partly an overreaction to the initial excessive hype. It didn't top the Festival of Britain or the Great Exhibition, but it was a good day out, and the building (and tube link) are still useful today.
Mr H, Congratulations on yet another simply superb video. I must declare an interest here: I really like all your videos. But for reasons I have yet to articulate, this is super spiffing. Loads of fascinating facts, and good smattering of innuendo, and excellent all round entertainment. In short, jolly good stuff. Well done and thank you. Oh, slight issue. While watching I realised that 1990 is more than 30 years ago. Where did they go? Simon T
Birmingham was supposed to get a new national football stadium near to the Airport but Wembley got refurbished. It was either that or an Olympic Stadium
I have only been to North Greenwich Station once and got out and that was to look at the new station I visited each station on the Jubilee Extension as it opened to look at the archtecture The problem is that the O2 / Millennium Dome was never a draw for me. I think there was a suggestion that they build a temporary opera house near there for when they did the Covent Garden revamp and it would have been cheaper than the full closure It could also have been used by ENO who did a complete refit afterwards but only had shorter seasons because of the mess the RHO made.
At 4:00 on the video, the hole in the dome is a ventilation shaft for the Blackwall Tunnel. No idea why they didn't just build it further to one side! More trivia about the dome. The roof is lighter than the air under it (extremely rare). You could lie two Eiffel Towers down inside it, which would of course really annoy the French. I recommend the trip up to the top too, you get to see planes landing at City Airport and the dangleway.
The move of the Millennium Dome from Birmingham to London was by the Tory Party, who have a habit of diverting funding from the rest of the UK to spend in London. I believe Hesseltine was heavily involved. Tony Blair came to power with the project well advanced. Blair kept it up to avoid wasting money on abandoned projects and time was running out.
That's a charitable explanation. Peter Mandelson was a very strong proponent of the Exhibition... perhaps not entirely unrelated to the fact that his grandfather Herbert Morrison was the main man behind the Festival of Britain.
Ah well. thanks again Jago. Always seems to me like a bag of rats, with the occasional bag of spanners thrown into the mix. Sad as I am the Millennium meant that my local pub tried to charge me a tenner for the honour of drinking past midnight. Oh and that taxis ripped everybody off.
A friend of mine did a lot of the soil testing for the area. I remember him saying they were taking bets on whether the tube would be operative in time...
If you want to see what the Dome site used to look like then watch the 1988 Doctor Who story 'Silver Nemesis'. It shows the old Gas Works and the surrounding area.
Trivia question and a million points if you know what the gas works was used for in the mid to late 80s. I was there then a few times a year from 85 to 89. Doing a specific type of training.
I remember the Queen's attempt on the telly at doing that arm thing during Auld Lang Syne. I don't think she looked happy. I 'd quite forgotten the Blackadder film. I'm going to look it up. I'm not sure I ever saw it.
The dome was not devised as a public celebration. It was devised to clean up the contaminated area using public funds, before selling on to private 'investors'.
I have older colleagues who work in Canary Wharf and some told me no one wanted to move there from the City back in the mid-80s. There was absolutely nothing there. And it was only with free parking spaces that they were eventually lured into the area which some still benefit from. Moreover, if the Jubilee line fails, you are shut from the rest of the world. Horrible place. As to the dome, Mendelsohn's project, a complete white elephant....
As a resident of the area for far too long that I can admit to remember, it’s actually “New Charlton”, (I would just call it Charlton) or those more posh “Greenwich Peninsula”, nevertheless the area has transformed beyond recognition since I found the place in mid 1990’s - I think, on balance much for the better. The original rubble strewn lunar landscape can be seen in the 1993 film en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cement_Garden_(film) - Original novel, Ian McEwan, this film has challenging topics, not suitable for children.
I remember going to The Millenium Dome during 2000. It was my 2nd trip to London (The previous trip involved a visit to Legoland in windsor). All I remember about v The Dome (Other than they filmed some of the first series of Techno Games there) was the transport exhibit and a human body exhibit with a large heart in it. I also remember the doors on the platforms at the station as well, thought they looked cool and futuristic (This coming from someone who had only traveled south of Leeds on 1 occasion prior to this). Since then, the last time I was near the dome was when I stayed near the Excel Centre for a Comic Con in 2015, could see it from where I along with my friends were staying.
great video as always, plenty of new information ! i actually love north greenwich and the area near the o2, including the emirates air line, there’s something really special about it :)
I visited the dome as a child, it was pretty underwhelming as I recall but a few things stand out, North Greenwhich and the DLR felt more futuristic and impressive than the dome itself... the whole place had a very strange atmosphere, including the body exhibition, which was actually quite good/weird. The loos in the dome had taps with auto sensors, first time I'd come across them, they were crap but I was most impressed, pretty sad for an 8 year old...haha.
Ah, yes; London's own site-specific Y2K problem. If only everyone had remembered that (from a certain point of view) the millenium didn't actually start until 2001, they could have had a bit more breathing room. (Or maybe that was the problem: maybe the people doing the signaling system thought they had another 12 months to work on it.)
Yes, rushing to celebrate the new millennium a year before the previous one had finished always makes me giggle. The Dome is a monument to the triumph of petty politics over arithmetic.
More fascinating details! - for a future video featuring the eastern end of the underground, might you consider looking into why Barking reverses the standard numbering of platforms (by which '1' is usually on the up-side - as at Upminster)?
I think Barking has been rebuilt many times and the cross over flyover under and out either side are as about as muddled as a piece of string. Even used to be not on a bridge, but next to a level crossing to get over the main road.
I bloody loved the dome as a kid. I seem to remember a huge ball pit area, an area themed like an old seaside resort, a dark forest with lights, and an area with an old James Bond car. Those attractions as well as the famous body experience. To be honest, for several of them I cant be sure they are not false memories as I've never seen images of them.
I proposed to my wife outside the Millennium Dome in March 2000. That wasn’t the plan but after 3 days of trying to peel her away from our group I just grabbed her, pulled her outside and dropped to one knee. I figured that a benefit was that the dome would go away after 2000 and there wouldn’t be any sentimental reason to return to the site. We celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary last week. The dome and our marriage live on.
Bit of info that was kept to a minimum on the JLE. one of the machines boaring the new tunnel had a cave in. This wasn't really mentioned in the media, kept all secret squirrel. It was underneath a gravesite at the junction of Jamaica Rd and St. James Rd (St James churchyard). Lets just say what came down wasn't very pleasant. The reason it was kept out of the media was there was no significant signs of the cave in on the churchyard level. I know as I was working on the JLE project at the time.
The Fleet Line which is now the Jubilee Line could of extended from Fenchurch Street to Greenwich and Lewisham and would of bypass North Greenwich. And could of had another extension to London City Airport and Silvertown with North Greenwich being added. When the Jubilee Line was extended to Stratford. It could of extend to London City Airport and possibly to Barking Riverside and Dagenham Dock/Beam Park. But that’s my own imagination on the extension of the Jubilee Line and the Fleet Line.
What sort of sound did the Fleet Line make when it morphed into the Jubilee Line? Was it a kind of Wom-wom-wom-wom! noise or like a zzzzzzZZZZZZT-POP! noise? Its a small detail but important, I feel!
Another excellent video Jago, but I have to take a bit of an issue with the comments regarding both the dome and the Blackadder episode. I visited the dome eight times that year and I thought it was more and more excellent every time I went. Maybe being from "North of Watford," we have less shiny things to marvel at and so perhaps we are more easily satisfied with things than those lucky lucky people " dahn sarf". But I still think it was absolutely brilliant. And I have " Blackadder- Back and Forth" on DVD and I watch it regularly still. It's absolutely great. And cunningly funny. In fact, it's as funny ...as a very funny thing. But another just as excellent production from yourself too Cheers.
If it makes them feel better, it was quite impressive to this then 5 year old who was fascinated by being able to go inside the human body. It also makes a great concert/sports venue now. I think somewhere like Manchester or Bristol or even Glasgow or Edinburgh could have been good candidate locations though.
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A video explaining the confusions of the Underground that does not start with the phrase 'Charles Tyson Yerkes....' is surely a rare beast!
I noticed that as well. So you can imagine my surprise when it was not in fact April 1st.
'Charles Tyson Yerkes' is this channel's equivalent to Geoff Marshall's 'Allotments', and the 'Abutments', of Darren of 'Adventure Me'.
@@bigblue6917 same here!
There's still an American company involved, so there.
Hopefully the American question in question did a better job in London than they did here in Boston. The tunnel they built here turned out to be years late, leaks constantly, and requires nearly constant maintenance to keep it from collapsing.
I was part of the Millennium Dome opening ceremony. Those of you with a good memory might recall a group of children running along a platform and pulling down a massive curtain encircling the dome, marking the official opening (there's video of it knocking around on TH-cam) - I was one of them. I totally understand the disappointment and cynicism, but it'll always be a special place for me. A lot has changed since then.
I don't understand it at all. I visited the Dome about 5 times during the year 2000 and thought it was fantastic each time. The media were determined to give it negative coverage - I'm not sure why. I heard a rumour that because the media were kept waiting in the cold outside a tube station on the way to the dome on 31st December 1999 because of a security alert they were hell-bent on giving it bad coverage regardless of what it was really like.
@@ajs41 I loved it, although obviously my experience was quite different from that of the general public - I watched them building it as we started rehearsals for the ceremony months in advance. I think it's just our natural sense of pessimism in this country. There was a similar sense of dread leading up to and during the Olympics, but that was brilliant as far as I remember.
@@ajs41 One of my friends went and absolutely loved it, but others were distinctly underwhelmed.
@@ajs41 I visited around May 2000 and thought it was very good. I think the problem was that a lot of people thought it would be some kind of theme park, a sort of a mini Alton Towers.
@@ajs41 I was three and a half when I went, my earliest memories are of the exhibition, I can remember things so distinctly that when I revisited through TH-cam videos decades later I was shocked at how close my memories resembled them. I remember the buzz of the millennium and I remember knowing that going to the exhibition was a very special event. And mostly I remember having a really good time... sadly you’re right, the media were determined to creative the narrative of failure as bad news sells. I’d love for us to have a government now who invested heavily in cultural and educational events.
Bit harsh on Charlton, it has a Home Bargains now.
Fair do’s. That’s a massive upgrade! 🤣
I was there at the Dome as 1999 morphed into 2000, working for one of our national broadcasters. I can't remember anything about the show but I travelled there by the Jubilee line. By the time we'd finished wrapping up after the event the audience had long gone and so had the last train. Security was tight. We were taken to a hotel on a chartered coach but it had to wait for us outside the exclusion zone so we ended up walking for about half an hour. I think I'll give the next millennium celebrations a miss.
I actually worked in the Millenium Dome during the whole year it was opened. Although I wasn't hired directly by the Millenium company. Instead, I was hired by Granada Retail and Catering. They opened a tea shop under the Typhoo brand inside the dome. We sold various teas, coffees, sandwiches etc. I was 20 years old back then. Shame it didn't last longer because I would have stayed.
When it opened, the station was known as "North Greenwich for the Dome"; the idea was that (rather like the Olympics 12 years later) you had to go by public transport or not at all. In my case, not at all, although I have since been to an ice show there. Meanwhile, my late father, as a member of ARICS, was invited to visit the Dome when it was under construction and a vast empty space. He said it was incredibly impressive! For some time in the mid- 2000s, I worked at an office just across the river from it, when it was empty and unloved and a white elephant - its rescue came just in time!
I do enjoy listenting Jago Hazzard's dulcet tones. It's like radio with pictures.
Jago Hazzard's videos sound like they should be archived by British Pathe.
I agree, plus his subtle humour.
I don't care what anyone says, I like the dome. Granted, it was expensive and the exhibition was not the best, but the actual structure itself is really interesting when you get up close to it.
💚🐇🐴💚
An absolute masterpiece... the video, not the station.
Nor the dome...
Sounds like we Brummies dodged a bullet by not having the dome.
you got the NEC
@@highpath4776 and the National Indoor Arena and the only Sea Life Centre miles from the sea!
@@nixcails All them Canals too.
Watch a video of the inside and you will see it is amazing. Held the atp tour finals for 10 years and has NBA matches and much more.
I remember my Year 6 school trip to the Millennium Dome, it will and forever be the MD to me! Was supposed to be going to a gig there last April, which has been pushed back to next April now, so it'll be 22 years since I last saw it up close.
21 years later and how quickly we forget all that and thank you for the very useful reminder about the Dome. I did actually visit it in 2000 but I really cannot remember what was in it. In a funny sort of way the Greenwich Peninsula has gained a renaissance with me, when I visit London, I really enjoy visiting the Emirates Cable Car and riding across the Thames I love the views of London whether it be by day or night. I can say I am moved by the Dome at all and rather see it as an eyesore. In recent years the area around it has gained a little more ‘soul’.
i visited the Millenium Dome around April 2000. Yeah, it wasn't really up to much - in fact the best thing about it WAS the free (as in not costing any extra on top of the dome entry fee) Blackadder film. One memory is of one of the large spacious toilets (in the dome, not the Blackadder film!) where there was a square with an array of urinals on 3 sides - and the "interesting" situation of female cleaners continuously cleaning the urinals in between the men using them! Being of a modest disposition I waited for a cubicle to become free...
Also the promise that all toilets would be flushed by rainwater collected off the dome roof was interesting and what would now be called "Green".
I could use some economic stimulation myself.
I was confused and so had a quick google, and thus learned that North Greenwich station is in a completely different area to the historic North Greenwich, which was on the north side of the Thames; and I also learned that I was remembering North Greenwich as the name for the unrelated area of North Woolwich, which used to be part of Kent despite being also on the north side of the Thames. Ooph!
You are definitely a JH scholar! We were talking about the old Greenwich Hospital today but had to clarify that we didn't mean the Old Greenwich Hospital...
Not sure if you're of an age where you remember Soap on TV....
The Middleton Press does an excellent series on the railways and in 'Branch lines of East London' North Greenwich station is mentioned.
I went to the Dome and I enjoyed the day there - a lot of people were expecting an Alton Towers experience and instead they got a History Museum experience and I think that coloured the reactions. Anything with giant pube lice as the first exhibit is a winner in my books.
I "did" the Dome... but I didn't bother watching the Blackadder episode, because I thought, "what's the point of travelling all this way and paying for a real-life experience, only to watch a television episode?" It says something that many people found it the "highlight" of the whole experience.. There was a ticketing system for the much-hyped "Exhibition of Ourselves", and provision for long, zig-zagging queues... but... hardly anyone else there!
We visited the Dome for my birthday, just a day after the new year - I thought it was fantastic. Still have fond memories of the various parts; the biggest let down for me is that they didn't keep it open for longer than a year.
This episode brought to you by Murphy's law, where everything that can go wrong, does.
Murphy was an optimist.
Hey! Nothing to do with me!
I thought it was more Sod Law' This is like Murphy's Law but the turbos and boosters and the like.
And with Tony Blair's help.
My sister used to live in Greenwich and once a month we would go to the O2 together to see a movie in the cinema inside. The first time I visited the station back in 2004 I was surprised how big, grand and new it was. Well now I know why! Good Times. Now that I'm no longer living in the UK, visiting the O2 and its station has become a far-fetched dream for me rather than an actual possibility.
I actually enjoyed Blackadder at the Dome, which was both the first time I watched Blackadder and one of the few positive parts of the day.
Otherwise, the day was just from what I can recount a load of balls, both figuratively and literally.
I thought the episode was funny. What I thought less funny was the 30+ minute queue to get in to see the film.
@@tlillis4 Still better than the queue for The Body Zone.
I thought North Greenwich station should have been known as "Millennium Dome" during the year 2000. I visited the Dome about 5 times that year. I thought it was pretty fantastic and the negative media coverage wasn't justified.
I was there from August 1998 until March 2000, lovely station to work at.
I was an apprentice electrician working for an electrical ontract company at a time when SEGAS (South Eastern Gas Board) still operated the gas works. We were involved with heavy electrical installations of new cabling and monitoring equipment in readiness for the nationwide conversion to natural gas and much of the old own gas production plant had been shut down, but still in place. It was the largest gas works on the South side of the Thames - Beckton being the Northern equivelant and always wondered what happened to the industrial railway steam loco that was part of the rail system around the place, and lay abandoned outside its shed on the river frontage. They had a full blown restaurant and social club on site and was frequented on numerous occasions.
The Dome - alias 'Tony's Tent' as it was described by a river boat guide some years later - was built on the tar and products wells!
I remember, throughout the year 2000, the Millennium Dome Exhibition was almost always referred to in the news as "the troubled attraction." Hardly an incentive for those considering a visit there. And when it closed, it was in mothballs for a number of years before it finally reopened as the o2.
I remember just before Christmas 2003, it briefly reopened as The indoor Winter Wonderland…I went there for my Birthday. We had wristbands but some of the rides the wristbands weren’t valid and had to pay again! 🙄
This tale kind of sums up Britain in general.
I started my Underground career at both North Greenwich and Canary Wharf. For about 6 months from mid 2000 I and my colleagues would wearily and very much alone be forced to walk the platforms as the trains rolled through. We would count the tiles. Watch the mice dance the rails. Munch our way through chocolate bars until relieved by the next poor victim placed into solitude. The most exciting event was probably the massive rave on New Year’s Eve 2000/2001. The staff were lovely. The location was not. Would love to see a video on Canary Wharf. Would be happy to add any info if you have questions. Love the vids.
I was working at an American news magazine in the late 1990s. Mr. Hazzard's recounting is an excellent overview of the blow-by-blow nonsense I was chuckling over in my office in New York. I still refer to one of the principals as "Lord Falconer of the Dome" 😆 When I finally did get to see it (in summer of 2000) I was less impressed by the Dome and the festival than I was with riding on the new Jubilee line extension. I guess I'll never learn. Although, the Dome did feature in a Bond film AND had the second largest McDonald's in Europe. What can I say - some of us are never satisfied.
Back in 2010, I was living in Charlton. I once overheard a tourist ask a tired-looking member of LU staff at the top of the escalators how to get to the Millennium Dome, and get the reply "go back in time ten years then go through those doors" :)
We love the Jubilee line.
I call it the Jubbly line........
I went on a school trip to the Millennium Dome. I've heard people talk about the Great Exhibition and the Festival of Britain, but it feels weird to hear something that I remember happening being talked about in the same context! That's often regarded as a sign of getting old, but strangely enough it doesn't make me feel old!
One minor bit of trivia relatable to the Dome and The Jubilee Line at North Greenwich. TfL had in place a contingency plan for the event of the Jubilee Line being disrupted and the need to convey passengers…it consisted of fleets of Secondhand Buses parked in a car park out of sight…with Drivers sitting inside awaiting to be called out. The buses would go through Blackwall Tunnel to either Canning Town or Stratford where people could use alternative routes to get about.
Reportedly they were called out a dozen or so times…only to get to North Greenwich to be told to Stand Down again as the Jubilee Line was running again, and passengers told to return to the Tube!
I remember when the first section of the JLE opened between Stratford and North Greenwich. It seemed so odd having this little line between two then-unappealing places. A bit like having an airline between Scunthorpe and Tashkent.
It was kind of ok for a surreal day out with small children. I remember queueing for a long time in order to join another queue.
North Greenwich station is actually three time as big as the public are aware due to all the non public areas such as staff accommodation, train crew rest rooms etc. I remember having to go through a car wash before being allowed to leave site during the construction of the station so any contaminates didn't leave site.
I just admire your healthy cynicism. Whenever the politicians get involved in planning, piss-ups and breweries spring to mind. Keep the videos coming, Jago.
I do not particularly like trains nor I do not live in London yet this is my favourite TH-cam channel.
Very interesting, many thanks for your many Hazzardous Productions
A good friend of mine visited the Millennium Dome a few days after it opened. He said that it, and everything it contained were utter shite.
A similar opinion to the much vaunted 'River Of Fire': I worked the night of 31-12-99 - 01-01-00, doing a job at a site overlooking my town, with orders to inform my boss if everything went pear shaped, as the doom mongers had been saying. Midnight came, the electricity stayed on, and people set off a lot of fireworks. I rang my parents, to wish them a happy new year, and asked dad what the river of fire had looked like. He laughed, and said:
"Less of a river of fire. More like a dribble of piss, boy." I heard Mum, in the background, berating him for the use of the 'P' word, and then laughing. They'd had a few.
I went to the dome once in 2000 and really enjoyed it. I remember a whole load of bendy buses parked up outside. I went by coach only managed to get there once in five attempts as all the other coaches were cancelled. I thought it was great I saw 3 zones and the blackadder film twice! Was gutted when they closed it, it could have been a great thing for london. The media in this country has a lot to answer for!
History with humour, perfect combination.
An interesting story! I wonder what would have happened if the Dome had been in Birmingham..
Also, between this and your former tramway video.. Mark Knopfler's Silvertown Blues is going to be on my playlist awhile longer yet!
Finally.. having been to the Dome when it opened.. I personally liked the Blackadder episode. So There 😋😉
That aside.. thanks for another great story 👍
The Jubilee Line is a story unto itself of course. The name intended to reflect the intended year of opening, 1977, the Queen's Silver Jubilee. However, it was 2 years after the Silver Jubilee that the Jubilee Line actually opened from Stanmore to Charing Cross in 1979. Like Crossrail, it's another example of outside interference in unnecessarily renaming the project to reflect the Queen in some way
I am now reliving the disappointment and hopelessness I felt back in the late 90's when all this was being messed up. A transportational episode!
To be technically correct, the JLE was ready over a year before the millennium. The new millennium began on 1/1/2001 (there was never a year zero). All the 2000ers were a year early, as was the dome.
If I remember rightly, the Swiss (correctly) celebrated the start of the new millennium on 1/1/2001. The lack of basic numeracy here is fairly typical in this day and age.
Can't remember the exact year, but in the late 90's I was working with a number of ISP customers at Telehouse just opposite the Millennium Dome site when I went up to the roof there with one of the senior managers to look down on and over the building site. Working in Telecoms I jokingly suggested that there was some telecoms contracts to be won there. A short while later it was announced that Telehouse had themselves done that contract. It was interesting even impressive over many subsequent visits to watch the development there. Shame I never got any photos on any of my many visits.
And because the Gas Business did not have the money to clean the area up, they use the Public money to clean up the area for the Dome.
Same as the 2012 London Olympics, get the public to pay for the clean up of this old brownfield site instead of the Businesses that made the mess.
It's funny how the dome went from complete disaster in government hands to massive commercial success in private hands. Granted they got a remarkably good deal on the thing but it's in the end achieved everything the dome originally set out to do and more - probably, ultimately, worth the investment from taxpayers.
Yet again the nail was squarely hit on the head sir!
As someone who is from that area, that is 100% Greenwich, no part of charlton is in SE10
I'm from the area too. In my mind the divide between Greenwich and Charlton has always been the flyover for the Blackwell Tunnel approach, although obviously that's just my subjective opinion.
@@tcc300892 yeah anything to the west of peartree way is Greenwich for me
I went to the Dome with my family - I’d have been 19 at the time. It was… ok, but there just didn’t seem much point to it. Some of the zones were good, some were dull. The acrobatic thing in the middle was not bad, although Peter Gabriel’s soundtrack was peculiar from memory.
I’ve never been back as I would need to remortgage my house to watch a gig there these days and I understand the acoustics aren’t great and the cheap seats are vertigo inducing….
Nice shots at 1:45 and 2:14, love industrial feel of North Greenwich.
Nice to see some positive comments about the good ol' Millennium Dome. We went almost at the end of the year thinking we really ought to see it before it closed, and we enjoyed the day. OK, it wasn't earth-shattering, but it was certainly interesting. I remember the Body Zone, the Transport Zone and the Rest Zone - I always thought it was a shame the last-named couldn't be transported to the City and used as a chill-out place for stressed office workers. The bad press was partly an overreaction to the initial excessive hype. It didn't top the Festival of Britain or the Great Exhibition, but it was a good day out, and the building (and tube link) are still useful today.
Jago, you have been spoiling us this week, with yet another excellent video
Loving these evening uploads sir!
Keep up the good work fella and stay safe. 🚂
Mr H, Congratulations on yet another simply superb video. I must declare an interest here: I really like all your videos. But for reasons I have yet to articulate, this is super spiffing. Loads of fascinating facts, and good smattering of innuendo, and excellent all round entertainment. In short, jolly good stuff. Well done and thank you. Oh, slight issue. While watching I realised that 1990 is more than 30 years ago. Where did they go? Simon T
Birmingham was supposed to get a new national football stadium near to the Airport but Wembley got refurbished. It was either that or an Olympic Stadium
I have only been to North Greenwich Station once
and got out
and that was to look at the new station
I visited each station on the Jubilee Extension
as it opened to look at the archtecture
The problem is that the O2 / Millennium Dome
was never a draw for me.
I think there was a suggestion that they build
a temporary opera house near there
for when they did the Covent Garden revamp
and it would have been cheaper than the full closure
It could also have been used by ENO who did
a complete refit afterwards
but only had shorter seasons
because of the mess the RHO made.
At 4:00 on the video, the hole in the dome is a ventilation shaft for the Blackwall Tunnel. No idea why they didn't just build it further to one side!
More trivia about the dome. The roof is lighter than the air under it (extremely rare). You could lie two Eiffel Towers down inside it, which would of course really annoy the French. I recommend the trip up to the top too, you get to see planes landing at City Airport and the dangleway.
Ah, the Millennium Dome - a structure that didn't have an actual function, plus it isn't a dome... Great video as always.
The Station is very nice but I enjoy the water taxis going to Westminster prier. A very good ride.
Always a good and interesting video, thanks for sharing Jago.
The move of the Millennium Dome from Birmingham to London was by the Tory Party, who have a habit of diverting funding from the rest of the UK to spend in London. I believe Hesseltine was heavily involved. Tony Blair came to power with the project well advanced. Blair kept it up to avoid wasting money on abandoned projects and time was running out.
That's a charitable explanation. Peter Mandelson was a very strong proponent of the Exhibition... perhaps not entirely unrelated to the fact that his grandfather Herbert Morrison was the main man behind the Festival of Britain.
@@andrewgwilliam4831
The fact is the Tories moved it to London and had the Dome design done.
Always enjoy your videos and narration, JH
I know those stations well from Mozfest when it was held at Ravensbourne.
Ah well. thanks again Jago. Always seems to me like a bag of rats, with the occasional bag of spanners thrown into the mix. Sad as I am the Millennium meant that my local pub tried to charge me a tenner for the honour of drinking past midnight. Oh and that taxis ripped everybody off.
A friend of mine did a lot of the soil testing for the area. I remember him saying they were taking bets on whether the tube would be operative in time...
If you want to see what the Dome site used to look like then watch the 1988 Doctor Who story 'Silver Nemesis'. It shows the old Gas Works and the surrounding area.
They should call it "Millennium Dome Station" just to mess with the people at O2.
Trivia question and a million points if you know what the gas works was used for in the mid to late 80s. I was there then a few times a year from 85 to 89. Doing a specific type of training.
I remember the Queen's attempt on the telly at doing that arm thing during Auld Lang Syne. I don't think she looked happy.
I 'd quite forgotten the Blackadder film. I'm going to look it up. I'm not sure I ever saw it.
Goodness! I remember it all so well! Well done Jago
The dome was not devised as a public celebration. It was devised to clean up the contaminated area using public funds, before selling on to private 'investors'.
Spot on
4:07 I've never seen an Uber boat go so fast
I have older colleagues who work in Canary Wharf and some told me no one wanted to move there from the City back in the mid-80s. There was absolutely nothing there. And it was only with free parking spaces that they were eventually lured into the area which some still benefit from. Moreover, if the Jubilee line fails, you are shut from the rest of the world. Horrible place. As to the dome, Mendelsohn's project, a complete white elephant....
Used to get tube here and then bus to Woolwich. Utter hell each way
As a resident of the area for far too long that I can admit to remember, it’s actually “New Charlton”, (I would just call it Charlton) or those more posh “Greenwich Peninsula”, nevertheless the area has transformed beyond recognition since I found the place in mid 1990’s - I think, on balance much for the better. The original rubble strewn lunar landscape can be seen in the 1993 film en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cement_Garden_(film) - Original novel, Ian McEwan, this film has challenging topics, not suitable for children.
I remember going to The Millenium Dome during 2000. It was my 2nd trip to London (The previous trip involved a visit to Legoland in windsor). All I remember about v The Dome (Other than they filmed some of the first series of Techno Games there) was the transport exhibit and a human body exhibit with a large heart in it. I also remember the doors on the platforms at the station as well, thought they looked cool and futuristic (This coming from someone who had only traveled south of Leeds on 1 occasion prior to this). Since then, the last time I was near the dome was when I stayed near the Excel Centre for a Comic Con in 2015, could see it from where I along with my friends were staying.
Had to do with money! How shocking!
great video as always, plenty of new information ! i actually love north greenwich and the area near the o2, including the emirates air line, there’s something really special about it :)
I visited the dome as a child, it was pretty underwhelming as I recall but a few things stand out, North Greenwhich and the DLR felt more futuristic and impressive than the dome itself... the whole place had a very strange atmosphere, including the body exhibition, which was actually quite good/weird. The loos in the dome had taps with auto sensors, first time I'd come across them, they were crap but I was most impressed, pretty sad for an 8 year old...haha.
Ah, yes; London's own site-specific Y2K problem. If only everyone had remembered that (from a certain point of view) the millenium didn't actually start until 2001, they could have had a bit more breathing room. (Or maybe that was the problem: maybe the people doing the signaling system thought they had another 12 months to work on it.)
Yes, rushing to celebrate the new millennium a year before the previous one had finished always makes me giggle. The Dome is a monument to the triumph of petty politics over arithmetic.
North Greenwich station isn't in Greenwich... Which is a fairly common British railway practice really.
More fascinating details! - for a future video featuring the eastern end of the underground, might you consider looking into why Barking reverses the standard numbering of platforms (by which '1' is usually on the up-side - as at Upminster)?
I think Barking has been rebuilt many times and the cross over flyover under and out either side are as about as muddled as a piece of string. Even used to be not on a bridge, but next to a level crossing to get over the main road.
I think the highlight of the Millennium Dome was the Millennium Dome raid
That dome construction never seems to end.
I bloody loved the dome as a kid. I seem to remember a huge ball pit area, an area themed like an old seaside resort, a dark forest with lights, and an area with an old James Bond car. Those attractions as well as the famous body experience. To be honest, for several of them I cant be sure they are not false memories as I've never seen images of them.
Is it my imagination or did this episode decelerate from full speed to abrupt ending. I feel like Oliver, I want more sir!
Great episode sir.
I proposed to my wife outside the Millennium Dome in March 2000. That wasn’t the plan but after 3 days of trying to peel her away from our group I just grabbed her, pulled her outside and dropped to one knee. I figured that a benefit was that the dome would go away after 2000 and there wouldn’t be any sentimental reason to return to the site. We celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary last week. The dome and our marriage live on.
Wonderful. Jubilee Line. Best line on the Tube. I live on the Jubilee in North London, and my brother lives in Charlton. Wooo Hooo.
Bit of info that was kept to a minimum on the JLE. one of the machines boaring the new tunnel had a cave in. This wasn't really mentioned in the media, kept all secret squirrel. It was underneath a gravesite at the junction of Jamaica Rd and St. James Rd (St James churchyard). Lets just say what came down wasn't very pleasant. The reason it was kept out of the media was there was no significant signs of the cave in on the churchyard level. I know as I was working on the JLE project at the time.
The Fleet Line which is now the Jubilee Line could of extended from Fenchurch Street to Greenwich and Lewisham and would of bypass North Greenwich. And could of had another extension to London City Airport and Silvertown with North Greenwich being added.
When the Jubilee Line was extended to Stratford. It could of extend to London City Airport and possibly to Barking Riverside and Dagenham Dock/Beam Park. But that’s my own imagination on the extension of the Jubilee Line and the Fleet Line.
Another great and interesting vid, Jago. As “modern” stations go I think they did a decent job on the Jubilee line.
What sort of sound did the Fleet Line make when it morphed into the Jubilee Line? Was it a kind of Wom-wom-wom-wom! noise or like a zzzzzzZZZZZZT-POP! noise? Its a small detail but important, I feel!
Another excellent video Jago, but I have to take a bit of an issue with the comments regarding both the dome and the Blackadder episode.
I visited the dome eight times that year and I thought it was more and more excellent every time I went.
Maybe being from "North of Watford," we have less shiny things to marvel at and so perhaps we are more easily satisfied with things than those lucky lucky people " dahn sarf".
But I still think it was absolutely brilliant.
And I have " Blackadder- Back and Forth" on DVD and I watch it regularly still.
It's absolutely great. And cunningly funny. In fact, it's as funny ...as a very funny thing.
But another just as excellent production from yourself too
Cheers.
That's what Tony Blackadder gets for running with Baldrick Major's cunning plan.
If it makes them feel better, it was quite impressive to this then 5 year old who was fascinated by being able to go inside the human body. It also makes a great concert/sports venue now.
I think somewhere like Manchester or Bristol or even Glasgow or Edinburgh could have been good candidate locations though.
Never fails to please. 👍🏻🇬🇧
I'm going to learn something.