FROM WHITE ELEPHANT TO QUITE RELEVANT! (The O2 (formerly the Millennium Dome))

Member Name: jojopillo

Product:	The O2 (formerly the Millennium Dome)
Date:	22/05/09 (274 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: AMAZING STRUCTURE, GREAT CONCERT VENUE!

Disadvantages: CAN BE A BIT CHAOTIC IF THERE ARE TRANSPORT PROBLEMS

A little background
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Originally built to house the Millennium Exhibition (which ran from 1st January 2000 to 31st December 2000), this massive marquee-like structure is the biggest of its kind in the world. Its highest point is 52 metres (one for each week of the year) and has twelve supports (one for each month). When looking down on it has a diameter of 365 metres (one for each day), and the canopy is made of a glass fibre material. Situated on the Greenwich peninsular (that horse-shoe looking part of the Thames you see at the beginning of Eastenders), this structure dominates the local skyline.
The largest part inside is the O2 Arena and takes up the whole centre of the dome, having a capacity of 20,000 people.

I never managed to visit the O2 when it was the Millennium Dome, and I think it's one of those things, a bit like Snickers and Marathon, where we find it hard to call it by its new name. but having visited it three times now I am happy to say I don't think of it as the Millennium Dome any more!

Wow!
*****
My first visit there was with friends to see Linkin Park play at the O2 Arena in January 2008 and, as well as looking forward to the gig, I was really excited at attending this most famous of 'white elephants'!

Arriving by tube (London Underground) we walked a short distance and were met with a truly awesome spectacle. The place definitely has the 'wow' factor when you first see it up close! As you approach the O2 across the vast concourse you'll notice a steel line embedded in the pavement, which is actually the meridian line (0 degrees longitude) - Greenwich of course being the home to Greenwich Mean Time - and it runs right through the dome. The main entrance is at Peninsular Square, the south side of the dome, and when you walk in you once again gasp, as it dawns on you just how big this place is!

When you've sufficiently calmed down you'll see ticket offices to your left, and, moving clockwise in your field of vision, you have a large area selling concert merchandise, then entrances A, B and C for the Arena, and to the right are the first of a whole host of clubs, bars and restaurants that you will encounter on your journey round. The first one you see is Starbucks (they're everywhere!) and in the centre of all this is what I can only describe as a massive chandelier kind of structure with illuminated blue globes incorporating the words 'Welcome to the O2'

Yummy!
*******
As you start to explore more you'll notice there are no malls to the left of the main entrance, everything runs to the right. So as you walk down the mall (called Entertainment Avenue) you have numerous amounts of bars, clubs and restaurants at your disposal. The restaurants have a mixed variety of world foods; British, American, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Thai and South American! And you won't see a KFC, Burger King or McDonalds in sight - bonus! Apart from Pizza Express, Starbucks and Frankie & Benny's I'd not heard of any of the others at all!

By the time we'd walked around a bit, bearing in mind we'd been on our feet all day, we were absolutely ravenous and spotted a restaurant called S&M, a kind of 50's retro place which mainly sold sausage and mash dishes (hence the name). Now I'm not going to review this here, just to say that having sent our food back three times for being cold it repeatedly came back no different. After the third time the manager came over and when we asked him to taste it, he refused! Now what does that say? Needless to say we upped and left to find another place to satisfy our hunger. We eventually decided on a place called Jimmy Monaco's Love Burgers; and that's all they sell, burgers! The tables inside were about 8' square and you shared with other diners. They were playing Linkin Park music and the atmosphere at our table was great leading up to the concert.

You did what?
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Further down Entertainment Avenue the space opens up a bit and here you can have a little bit of fun. There are three cut-away open spherical booths that each face a TV screen, and on the screen you can choose one of four music videos (we chose YMCA, lol!). In the booth there are various bits of fancy dress, wigs, ponchos and other paraphernalia. So, donned in our various garbs we started to do the YMCA dance while watching the original music video, and ourselves, on the split screen; and did it matter that people were watching us cavort around making fools of ourselves? No, it didn't! Afterwards you are given a code, which you text to O2, and you then receive the video on your mobile. The finished article has you superimposed onto the video. It cost just £1.50 at the time (chargeable to your phone) It's great fun and is a great memory to keep too!

Opposite these video booths you will see escalators which take you up to The Vue cinema. It's quite a luxurious cinema with eleven screens, one of which seats 770 people and is the largest screen in London, and gives another dimension to your visit to the O2.

Shhh!
*****
Continuing along Entertainment Avenue you come to the London Piazza where you will find entrances D,E and F to the arena, and one of my favourite little places, the Chill Out Zone (I think that's what it was called) This is also a dome and when you enter you have to remove your shoes, then you can go on to the soft raised area where you'll find lots of cushions and you can just lie down, take a breather and escape the bustle of the outside world for a while. Tiny little lights in the ceiling softly change colour and with the headphones they provide you can listen to soothing music.

Entertainment Avenue's bars and restaurants end just after this and as you walk further round - by this time you're at the west side of the dome - you come to the last of the entrances to the arena, G, H and I.

My second visit was to see the Tutankhamen exhibition in June 2008 with my friend, who is just nuts about anything to do with ancient Egypt. The exhibition was breathtaking when you considered that these artefacts were thousands of years old! Also included with the package was a 3-D cinema experience about ancient Egypt. This took place at The Vue cinema inside the O2, and it is a big cinema indeed!

How much?!!
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My third, and most recent, visit was in May 2009 to see one of my favourite artists Pink, also at the arena. A great show it was too!

By the time we arrived there we were once again ravenous from a busy day round London, so I thought we'd stick to what we knew best and go back to Jimmy Monaco's. Once again they were playing Pink's music, so a good atmosphere builder. I must say though that it did cost £32 for burger and chips for two people, which included a couple of soft drinks each. To me that's really expensive, but I suppose they do have a bit of a captive market there; and it is London!

I would definitely encourage you to plan your travel to the O2 in advance, especially for a concert, as when I went to see Pink the Jubilee line was closed, and with no forward planning all I could do was to get off as near as I could and get a taxi which cost £10. Getting back was awful, as there were literally thousands of people queuing for the replacement bus services; which were free though, I have to say!

Getting there
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By car
The venue has 2,200 parking spaces, but they encourage you to pre-book so as to avoid disappointment. You can do this on 020 8463 6718. I didn't travel by car but they say it's well signposted, for those of us without SatNav.

By tube
Greenwich North on London Underground's Jubilee line is just outside the venue, and is an easy way to get to any part of London or other mainline rail connections.

By bus
Seven bus routes run to and from the O2. These go to and from Central London, Woolwich, Stratford, Charlton, Eltham, North Kent, and of course, Greenwich.

By river (my fave!)
The Thames Clipper is a high speed catamaran and operates from Waterloo Pier to the O2 and vice/versa, and is a great way to get there, having experienced it with my friend on our Tutankhamen trip. This alights at the O2 on the eastern side, so you come to the main entrance through a pathway shielded by a long beautiful living bamboo fence. As you peek through you see some beautiful formal flowered borders; something I'll have to explore next time I'm there!

There are also taxi ranks at North Greenwich underground station and private hire available from local companies with designated pick-up points.

Another notable point is that with it being all on one level (apart from Vue cinema and upper parts of the arena) is that it is a very wheelchair accessible venue. The arena and Vue cinema do, of course, have disabled access; and in the case of the arena has a dedicated disabled access booking line

There are no admission fees and it opens at 9am till late, with last admission being 1am (for the clubs, I imagine)

A few handy numbers and addresses
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For loads more information you can visit www.theo2.co.uk

The O2
Peninsula Square
London
SE10 0DX (for those of you with SatNav!)

Customer Services;
Tel: 020 8463 2000
Email: customerservices@theo2.co.uk

Disabled Access Booking Line;
Tel: 0870 600 6140
Typetalk: 18001 0870 600 6140
Email: access@theo2.co.uk

...And finally
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I'm not sure whether I would consider it to be a true tourist attraction but to go there for a concert is a great experience, and if you're around that area of London it's definitely worth a look.

Oh, and apparently, if you were to flip the O2 upside down it would take Niagara Falls 15 minutes to fill it!

Summary: A GREAT EXPERIENCE!