Footage shows roof of Richard Rogers’ 1999 dome shredded as 122mph winds batter UK

Large sections of the roof at RSHP’s O2 Arena have been torn off by the storm bringing havoc to much of the UK.

Footage shared on social media shows significant damage to Richard Rogers’ 1999 building, located in north Greenwich and previously known as the Millennium Dome.

Storm Eunice has seen winds of up to 122mph in parts of southern England, with forecasters warning that it could be one of the UK’s worst storms in 30 years. Buildings have been damaged, bridges closed, train networks shut down and multiple accidents have been reported on the UK’s roads. 

A construction site on the seafront in Southend has been badly damaged, according to reports, and the cranes in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford are said to be swaying like ships’ masts and even spinning. Work on the site has been suspended for the day. 

The Stirling Prize-winning Laban Centre dance studio in Deptford, designed by Tate Modern architects Herzog & de Meuron, has also been damaged with pictures showing large facade panels stripped from the side of the building and lying across nearby cars. 

And roofs have also been torn off Cressingham Gardens also in south London. Designed and built between 1969 and 1979 by a celebrated team of Lambeth council architects led by Ted Hollamby, the estate was an example of the shift away from residential tower blocks to high-density low-rise housing that characterised the late seventies and eighties. It is currently the subject of a fierce campaign to save it from proposals by Conran & Partners to redevelop parts of it.

Images on Twitter show the O2 Arena’s PTFE-clad glass-fibre fabric roof being shredded, with large sections flapping in the wind.

The arena, which was built by Sir Robert McAlpine and engineered by Buro Happold, is the eighth largest building in the world by usable volume and the largest of its type.

Originally built to host an exhibition celebrating the arrival of the new millennium in 2000, it was rebranded as the O2 Arena in 2005 and opened two years later following a £600m redevelopment. It regularly hosts major concerts for up to 20,000 people.

Bon Jovi has played on top of it, Justin Rose has teed off from it and James Bond has slid down it.

>> Technical Study: Up at the O2 walkway

 

Postscript

This story is being updated as further incidents occur. Send your reports and pictures to our newsdesk, contact@bdonline.co.uk

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