page_title: Millennium Dome
section_title: Millennium Experience
hierarchical_section_title: Millennium Dome / Millennium Experience
caption_attribution_description: English: Millennium Dome at Night
context_page_description: 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.
context_section_description: After a private opening on the evening of 31 December 1999, the Millennium Experience at the Dome was open to the public for the whole of 2000, and contained a large number of attractions and exhibits.
caption: The Millennium Dome at night, September 2000
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