please empty your brain below
dg writes: no, that's weed as in small, green and unsmokeable
1. Doing the Dome cleaned up one of the most polluted and stinky parts of London. It had been used as a gas depot for decades. This was not a pretty sight.
2. The Greenwich Peninsula is well on its way to be a pleasant place to live. The southern portion has apartments, a supermarket, a cinema, a school, a health centre and a hotel.
3. The northern portion is being done next. Planning permission has been granted and plans and the rest are publically available.
4. I had the misfortune to go th 'Millennium Experience' and thought it was dire. I have had the fortune to go into the Dome a couple of times whilst empty and let me tell you; it is simply stunning. I had not really appreciated the building itself until I saw it that way. It is enormous and it is beautiful. Of course, it's not staying empty; the centre piece will be a full size arena in the centre (told you it was enormous). Ditto looks stunning.
So basically I'm saying - look past your prejudices and give it a chance, cos this looks like being a regeneration project that London can be proud of.
Those pylons are ace
If you read my post from May 28th you'll see I do rather love the Dome and its surroundings.
I just remain saddened that one year of attempted optimism has been mothballed, and that the area is almost as desolate now as it used to be before they started building the thing.
I have yet to tire of walking round the abandoned Dome, but I suspect I may not love the area quite so much once it's full of pizzerias, boutiques and expensive studio flats.
To Dr Sands; you aware presumably that something like 30\\% of the new houses to be built on the Peninsula are to be key worker or otherwise affordable housing. You are aware also no doubt that the developers for the northern portion of the Peninsula are not the same as those for the southern portion - ergo those flats/houses on the northern portion will not necessarily be the same? You are of course aware also that the London Arena is probably going to close soon, and that London will therefore be short one high class entertainment centre.
Maybe I'm prejudiced when I think that living amongst new homes, with new leisure (and yes, retail) facilities would be better than leaving the Peninsula to rot, especially given how the south east is so crowded and people are always going on about cleaning up brownfield sites rather than using greenfield ones. I would have thought this would be a perfect example for people to applaud.
As for the Dome being 'filth and rather depressing'. Well, each to their own, but I imagine they'll clean it before they start using it.
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