5 years ago... Virtual Millennium Dome opens for online tours

The Dome... derided in its day, but it still had a better name than 'The Gherkin'...

By silicon.com, 16 October 2003 16:38

NEWS 16.10.98:A virtual version of London's Millennium Dome launched on the internet today. 3D graphics specialist Superscape and chip giant Intel worked with the New Millennium Experience on the project. Visitors can sail past the dome on the Thames, walk around it on foot or fly over it in a helicopter. 16.10.03: The Millennium Dome, the largest white elephant in the world, became an embarrassment for all involved in the project - but at its conception it was set to be a bold coming together of art, architecture and the most advanced technology in the world. It could have been so good. After it served its purpose as a centrepiece for the Millennium celebrations, it was even touted as a home to the UK high-tech industry - think Reading's industrial parks all under one roof. Instead it's become a sometime concert venue after the latest scheme to tempt tech into the capital had failed. At the time one silicon.com reader remarked: "The dome is not in a great location. In fact, it's a real ball-ache to get to and from. An indoor, 24 hour, tropical beach resort studded with bars, restaurants and clubs complete with lagoon and wave machine - that's what it would take for me to venture out to Greenwich again. That's what should have filled the Dome in the first place. London has plenty of tediously occupied business property but is sadly lacking in beach paradises."

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