Regeneration: The Story of the Dome Book

Adam Nicolson's book is a fascinating picture of the spirit of Britain in the new millennium coupled with a "biography" of the Dome, and an analysis of the political background to its creation. The inside story of Britain's first grand project since the 1940s is a picture of vision and idealism, muddle and uncertainty, and of a journey deeply unfamiliar to the political elite and the people. In 1992, John Major came up with the idea of a festival, which would be a national celebration on the eve of 2000, a Great Exhibition, and a successor to the 1951 Festival of Britain. By 1995, Michael Heseltine was in charge, the Millennium Commission was up and running and a derelict, contaminated site on the river Thames at Greenwich had been selected. Richard Rogers came up with the idea of a dome. It was an article of faith in the Britain of the 1990s that funding would be a basically private sector affair, and the story of how that was managed and how the delicate balance was maintained between national pride and the commercial interests of those companies who agreed to sponsor the Dome is a fascinating one. So is it a great feat of British engineering? A great example of British enterprise? And a new Great Exhibition? Adam Nicolson uses the focus of the Dome to explore through hundreds of conversations across Britain the usually unasked questions: what are our hopes and fears for ourselves, for the country? Do we still believe in an abundant and technological future?Read More