The Wharf Comment: The Dome Decade

By Giles Broadbent on January 14, 2010 11:53 AM |

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O2 Dome.JPG

Evolution has no foresight. It doesn't know where it's going. It plods along mutating here and there in the hope that serendipity will give it a shot. Such is the path followed by The Dome.

The dark days of 2001 act as a reminder of the general cluelessness and lack of direction that dogged much of the millennium experience.

That The O2 would eventually be a success was more certain if only because the company behind the makeover did such things for a living and, as AEG's David Campbell says, the company would have struggled to do a worse job.

Either way, within the decade, The O2 has been transformed into a world-class venue that gives presence and profile to an area that is still on the fringes.

That fact is evidenced by patchy transport services.

If the next 10 years offers an equivalent turn-around in frequency, consistency and variety of links eastward, then this area will be allowed to fulfil its grand potential.