O2 Arena London Music Venue, Greenwich Building Storm Eunice Damage, Pictures, Architect, Cinema, Dome Photos

O2 Arena London Venue

North Greenwich Concert Hall: Music Venue building in England, UK: Information + Images

18 Feb 2022

O2 Arena London Storm Damage

O2 Arena shredded by Storm Eunice with winds ripping huge part of domed room off

The iconic landmark suffered severe damage as 60mph gales pummelled the capital.

Images show a huge hole has appeared in the music venue’s tented roof, with bits of the destroyed white panels seen floating in the River Thames.

Witnesses watched on in shock as the 20,000-seater structure in Greenwich fell apart.

Film on YouTube

Images suggest at least four sections of the sheeted roof are totally destroyed. Tonight’s Fugees concert has been cancelled.

The building prior to the incident:

photo © Keepclicking

Potentially record-breaking gusts of more than 122mph have been recorded on the Isle of Wight, while in London gusts of up to 80mph are expected.

Images welcome at info(at)e-architect.com

page updated 9 Apr 2020 with new images

O2 Arena London

Date: 2007

Design: Populous (formerly HOK Sport)

Seating Capacity: 20,000 people

photo © Keepclicking

Facilities: indoor arena, music club + Cineworld cinema

Location: Peninsula Square, Greenwich peninsula – beside the River Thames in south London, UK

Facilities: 11-screen cinema; indoor beach; 2 concert halls; exhibition space inside the former Millennium Dome

Address: Units 1.02 & 1.03 The O2, Millennium Way, London SE10 0AX
Phone: 020 8269 0202
Website: www.theo2.co.uk

Height: 50 m

Aerial photograph:

photo © webbaviation

The O2 Arena London
Location: Greenwich, England, UK
Client: Anschutz Entertainment Group
Completion Date: Jun 2007
Capacity: 20,000 seats
Value: £100m

Cut-away image of this London music venue showing venue inside dome structure:

picture from architect

Ownership
Trinity College Cambridge reported 2 Aug to be negotiating with JV owners Quintain and Lend Lease to purchase the O2 Arena. The land is owned by English Partnerships.

The O2 Lounge entrance stair:

image from architect

Information + photos from HOK Sport, Architects, 030108:

London entertainment destination – music & sporting events

Under the cover of one of the world’s most individual contemporary structures, a show of a different kind is being staged. The arena that was designed and constructed inside ‘The O2’ will form the focus of an entertainment destination. It will stage an extensive range of music and sporting events.

The entertainment venue opened in early 2007, with a seating capacity of up to 23,000 people. It will host up to 150 events in its first year of opening, making it the UK’s premier venue. This building was known formerly as the Millennium Dome.

The venue during the Scissor Sisters concert:

concert picture from architect

North Greenwich Entertainment Venue Design

O2 event space and seating bowl Design

The innovative design of the arena responds to its unique context within The O2. The architectural approach is focused on the experience of the users. With the event space and seating bowl forming the heart of the building, the public concourses and suite levels wrap around this core. They focus outwards into three main atria which address the internal levels of the building.

The VIP Club Lounge at the O2 Arena:

photo from architect

The combination of good material selection and dramatic lighting emphasises the scale and volume of the public realm. This is no more dramatically explored than in the triple-height O2 blue room. Here, set against a backdrop of a 30m wide by 7m high projection wall, 500 visitors become central to the experience. They can interact with their environment through the latest technology.

A backdrop of clean architectural and graphic expression acknowledges the differing individuals who will attend the variety of events it holds. There is a good mix of bars, private lounges and food concessions.

The VIP Club Lounge:

image from architect

Dome Structure

The logistical challenge of placing a building the scale of the arena, within the Dome meant that the roof would have to sit tightly beneath the Millennium Dome liner fabric. It would also need to maintain a minimum 4-metre separation for air and smoke reservoir provisions. Emergency exiting and fire / life safety considerations for the London O2 Arena will build upon approved solutions developed originally for the Millennium Dome.

The innovative structural methodology required to erect the building cores and enormous roof system without conventional tower cranes is impressive. It lends itself to the fitting analogy of building a ship within a bottle, albeit at the largest scale imaginable.

The O2 Lounge:

picture from architect

Populous architects

London O2 Arena Building Facts

Building Facts

– The O2 arena has an overall diameter of 365 metres
– It has internal diameter of 320 metres, and a circumference of a kilometre
– It is 50 metres high at its central point
– The twelve steel masts are 100 metres high
– Over 70 kilometres of high-strength cabling make up the cable-net structure
– It encloses a ground-floor area of over 80,000 square metres
– At full capacity The O2 arena can hold 20,000 people
– Over 20,000 people worked on site to create The O2 as it stands today

– The venue is the first purpose built music venue in London since the Royal Albert Hall was built in 1837
– The state-of-the-art acoustics are designed to provide the perfect sound experience.
– The entire underside of the roof, upper walls, balcony fronts and seats are all treated to absorb sound. This makes it the most advanced venue in Europe
– The roof weighs 4,500 tonnes
– The venue will host the 2012 gymnastics and basketball finals
– It is the first Olympic venue to be completed
– The exhibition centre is arranged over two levels and covers 6,500m²

photo © Keepclicking

Service Facts

– All pints can be poured in 7 seconds
– 33,000 pints can be poured in half an hour
– The venue serves food from four continents around the world
– The venue has over 25 bars, restaurants and cafes
– There are 20 concession stands around the venue. They offering anything from fish and chips to stir fry. All food is freshly made in front of you
– The London O2 arena has over 600 loos, meaning an end to seemingly never ending queues for women. Wembley Arena has less than 200
– 78% of all visitors will arrive by public transport

Building Size

– If the venue was ever turned upside down Niagra Falls would take 15 minutes to fill it
– Likewise it would take a million pints of beer to fill it (a reader has advised us that this is incorrect and in fact it is 5,000,000,000 pints)
– Or 1,100 Olympic sized swimming pools
– The O2 arena volume equals thirteen Albert Halls
– Or ten St Paul’s Cathedrals
– Or two Wembley Stadiums
– 18,000 double-decker buses could fit into the O2
– The venue is as high as Nelson’s Column
– The Eiffel Tower lying on its side would fit into the venue
– The venue could hold 12 football pitches
– Or 72 tennis courts
– The Entertainment District within the O2 is the same length as Bond Street
– The circumference of the tent is 1km

The concourses:

picture from architect

Millennium Dome London

Richard Rogers buildings

Location: Millennium Way, London SE10 0AX, England, UK

London Buildings

Contemporary London Building Designs

London Architecture Links – chronological list

A recent UK capital city music venue building on e-architect:

ABBA Arena East London Building, close to Pudding Mill Lane DLR, East London
Design: STUFISH Entertainment Architects

photo © Dirk Lindner courtesy Stufish
ABBA Arena East London Building