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The oldest folly in the country is thought to be Freston Tower  and for the tallest folly, most likely it is Wainhouse's Tower  but what though holds the title of the biggest folly? Well the Millennium Dome is a possible contender, and not only by virtue of its physical dimensions.

The Biggest Folly ?
At 350 yards (320 metres) diameter, it is an unmistakable feature on the south bank of the Thames. Its height of 164 foot (50 metres) however does not ensure its visibility on the crowded skyline of London, something that a folly builder of old would not have tolerated, thanks partly to a complete absence of planning officers and their dreadful regulations in the past.
The actual structure consists of twelve 100m high steel masts holding up a net like web of 43 miles (72 km) of steel cable, on which is laid the roof of PTFE-coated glass fibre. This roof space covers the dome`s 20 acres ( 80,000 sq metres ) floor space, where the 15 different exhibition zones are to be found.
In looking for information I also found that apparently the dome could hold 3,800 million pints, and Niagara Falls would take 15 mins to fill it. The name of the sad person who sat down to work this out is not known.





The Cost:
You may have seen elsewhere on this site that the Ashton Memorial  in Williamson Park, Lancaster, the product of Lord Ashton, was an expensive venture at £90,000 in 1907, but allowing for inflation this still only amounts to around £5.7 million in today`s money.

Compare this to the £750 million plus bill of the dome and you realise that while it sits there like an upturned wok, waiting for a stir-fry to come along, we also have probably the most expensive folly ever constructed. The twist to all this is that this particular folly has probably been visited by more people so far this year, than many other traditional follies that have stood for well over a century.

This figure at the time of writing now stands at 4.5 million, somewhat less than the original estimate of 12 million though. Whether the visitors have come out of a sense of curiosity or for the experience that no doubt also existed for the Crystal Palace exhibition or the Festival Of Britain, remains to be seen.


Robbery
The £20 admission fee has obviously not helped the attendance figures, indeed in November 2000 several people resorted to using a bulldozer to break their way into the exhibition, a not very subtle protest against the high admission cost no doubt! The cover story of a diamond robbery being merely a smoke screen!

As the UK tourist industry, at the time of writing in December, mainly consists of people who arrive here by mistake by way of getting on the wrong connecting flight, it seems unlikely that the year`s 12 million target will ever be met, in all fairness though this target was later reduced to around 10 million. Those of the UK population who wished to experience 'The Experience' having probably already done so.
Maybe the dome will have its own January sale after it closes in 2001, and let people in for a fiver. ( 7.2 us dollars or 53 French francs ) ?

Will it though have the mark of a true folly, and still be here in 450 years time like the above mentioned Freston tower?

Answers on a postcard please to...............

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Footnote:- Final attendance figures for the year 2000, were 6, 517, 000. this includes more than one million non–paying visitors.

Dome figures say only 750,000 were foreign tourists.

Current forecasts showed final cost of the project will be £800 million (UK Pounds).

Co-Ords: 539130 180120 / TQ 391801  

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