Save the Dome

For Germaine Greer it was a "a flattened breast". For others, an upturned cereal bowl or a giant cocktail snack. But Lord Rodgers' most controversial design, the Millennium Dome at Greenwich, is to be saved for the nation. Mr Blair has declared that it will not be bulldozed, and is "very much part of the regeneration of that area". This is cause for celebration, for unlike its third-rate contents, the building is a worthy addition to our heritage.

For Germaine Greer it was a "a flattened breast". For others, an upturned cereal bowl or a giant cocktail snack. But Lord Rodgers' most controversial design, the Millennium Dome at Greenwich, is to be saved for the nation. Mr Blair has declared that it will not be bulldozed, and is "very much part of the regeneration of that area". This is cause for celebration, for unlike its third-rate contents, the building is a worthy addition to our heritage.

Recall the fate of the Dome's predecessors. Prince Albert's Crystal Palace, which housed the Great Exhibition of 1851, was moved from Hyde Park to Sydenham, south London, where it sadly fell victim to a fire in 1936. Bits of the South Bank complex that formed the site of the 1951 Festival of Britain remain, but two of its most celebrated landmarks - Ralph Tubbs' famous Skylon and Dome of Discovery - were demolished with obscene haste by an incoming Conservative government. We must hope that history does not repeat itself. William Hague should pledge that he, too, is committed to saving the Dome.