Dome Decade: The Past

Designed by Sir Richard Rogers, the white, fabric-covered building on land once home to a gas works, started life as a financially-disastrous visitor experience, became an empty white elephant, before being reborn to become the world's most successful music venue.

The Dome was the focal point for the Millennium celebrations when the great and the good, including the Queen and the prime minister gathered at the venue on December 31, 1999, to see in the New Year. It was an inauspicious start with many guests left waiting outside because of ticketing problems, heralding a troubled few years for the project.

The following day the Millennium Experience opened to the public. This year-long celebration of the new millennium featured 14 zones, each with a distinctive theme such as Body or Work, as well as live performances and visiting exhibitions.

In its January 6, 2000 edition, The Wharf reported lengthy queueing times, sometimes up to two hours for the most popular zones of Body, Journey and Play.

Susan Mercer, a shop assistant from Harlow, said: "We queued for just under 90 minutes to see the Body. We were only in there for 10 minutes but it was worth the wait."

Other attractions came and went, including the De Beers Millennium diamond exhibition featuring the Millennium Star, one of the world's most valuable diamonds. An audacious plot to steal the collection was foiled by police in November 2000.

When it closed on December 31, 2000, around 6.5million people had been to the Dome, only half of the predicted number, although it was still London's most popular tourist attraction that year.

After it closed debate raged over the future of the site and its iconic centrepiece. Former minister Lord Falconer revealed in 2001 it was costing £1million a month to maintain the empty building.

Later that year the site was handed over to a consortium led by entertainment group AEG and developed at a cost of around £350million into what is now The O2. It opened in June 2007.