London Arena
Encyclopedia
Isle of Dogs
The Isle of Dogs is a former island in the East End of London that is bounded on three sides by one of the largest meanders in the River Thames.-Etymology:...
, in East London
North East (London sub region)
The North East is a sub-region of the London Plan corresponding to the London Boroughs of Tower Hamlets, Newham, Waltham Forest, Redbridge, Havering, Barking and Dagenham, and the City of London. The sub region was established in 2008 and replaced the larger East sub region that had been...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. Seating capacity was up to 15,000, depending on the type of event held.
It first opened in 1989 and on November 18, the Arenaball Transatlantic Challenge was played there, an exhibition game between the Detroit Drive and the Chicago Bruisers
Chicago Bruisers
The Chicago Bruisers were a charter member of the Arena Football League, playing in the four-team "demonstration season" of 1987. They played their home games in the former Rosemont Horizon, now the Allstate Arena, home of the Chicago Rush.-History:...
, with the Drive winning 43–14.
It was the home of the London Knights
London Knights (UK)
London Knights were an English ice hockey team based in London. They first played in the UK's Ice Hockey Superleague in September 1998 and finally folded in April 2003....
ice hockey
Ice hockey
Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...
team, the London Towers
London Towers
London Towers was a professional basketball team based in London, England. They were one of the most successful and recognised British sports teams of the 1990s, collecting many titles in the British Basketball League as well as regularly competing in European competitions such as the Euroleague...
basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
team and later the Greater London Leopards basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
team (from nearby Tower Hamlets).
It also hosted pop concerts, plays, boxing matches and wrestling events.
The first band to ever play at the London Arena were Duran Duran
Duran Duran
Duran Duran are an English band, formed in Birmingham in 1978. They were one of the most successful bands of the 1980s and a leading band in the MTV-driven "Second British Invasion" of the United States...
.
In 1991, the Docklands Arena hosted the Great British Beer Festival
Great British Beer Festival
The Great British Beer Festival is a yearly beer festival organised by the Campaign for Real Ale . It presents a selection of cask ales and other alcoholic drinks from the UK and beyond. The festival is also home to the Champion Beer of Britain awards...
.
The arena had a £10 million refit in 1998, although it never managed to become a financial success, in part due to its fairly poor transport access and in 2005 it closed. It was superseded as the main arena in East London by The O2 Arena
The O2 arena (London)
The O2 Arena is a multi-purpose indoor arena located in the centre of The O2, a large entertainment complex on the Greenwich peninsula in London, England.With a capacity of up to 20,000 depending on the event, it is second largest...
, which is in The O2
The O2 (London)
The O2, visually typeset in branding as The O2, is a large entertainment district on the Greenwich peninsula in South East London, England, including an indoor arena, a music club, a Cineworld cinema, an exhibition space, piazzas, bars and restaurants...
entertainment complex (formerly the Millennium Dome
Millennium Dome
The Millennium Dome, colloquially referred to simply as The Dome or even The O2 Arena, is the original name of a large dome-shaped building, originally used to house the Millennium Experience, a major exhibition celebrating the beginning of the third millennium...
).
Slipknot
Slipknot (band)
Slipknot is an American heavy metal band from Des Moines, Iowa. Formed in 1995, the group was founded by percussionist Shawn Crahan and bassist Paul Gray...
recorded their live DVD, titled Disasterpieces
Disasterpieces
Disasterpieces is the second video album by American heavy metal band Slipknot. Released on November 22, 2002, a 2-disc case DVD features Slipknot performing a concert at London Dockland Arena, as well all of the band's music videos up until its release including songs from Slipknot and Iowa.The...
, here on February 15, 2002.
Former pop band S Club 7 filmed their concert at the arena, during their 2002 "S Club Carnival Tour" and was released on VHS
VHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
/DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
in early 2003.
In December 2005, it housed the annual 'Crisis Open Christmas' event (held the previous year in the Dome), organised by the London-based charity Crisis
Crisis (charity)
Crisis is is the UK national charity for single homeless people. The charity offers year-round education, employment, housing and well-being services from centres in London, Newcastle, Oxford, Edinburgh and Merseyside, called Crisis Skylight Centres....
. This provides food, accommodation, various medical and social services and company to around 1,500 guests and 3,500 volunteers each Christmas.
The arena was demolished in June 2006 and is set to be replaced by a mainly residential development.
London Arena was served by the Crossharbour and London Arena DLR station
Crossharbour and London Arena DLR station
Crossharbour is a DLR station west of Cubitt Town on the Isle of Dogs in east London. It is between Mudchute and South Quay stations and is in Travelcard Zone 2....
, which has since been renamed to simply Crossharbour (in 2007).
Wrestling events
The Arena played host to many WWFWorld Wrestling Entertainment
World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. is an American publicly traded, privately controlled entertainment company dealing primarily in professional wrestling, with major revenue sources also coming from film, music, product licensing, and direct product sales...
events, now known as WWE
World Wrestling Entertainment
World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. is an American publicly traded, privately controlled entertainment company dealing primarily in professional wrestling, with major revenue sources also coming from film, music, product licensing, and direct product sales...
including the European Rampage Tour in 1989, 1991 and in 1998 the UK exclusive PPV Capital Carnage. In 2000, the Arena hosted WCW house shows as well as an episode of WCW Monday Nitro
WCW Monday Nitro
WCW Monday Nitro was a weekly professional wrestling telecast produced by World Championship Wrestling, created by Ted Turner and Eric Bischoff. The show aired Monday nights on TNT, going head-to-head with the World Wrestling Federation's Monday Night Raw from September 4, 1995 to March 26, 2001...
which was broadcast on Tape Delay in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and on Bravo in the UK. It was also the venue for the WWE house show 'Tour De Force' on Friday 9 May 2003.