What's inside
Sir: Stephen Bayley begins his defence of the Millennium project (Arts, 6 December) with an attack on members of the Garrick Club. We are, of course, almost unen- durably chagrined by his view that we are not 'at the bright, cutting edge of radical opinion'.
The main thing he seems to want to get across is that the centre for celebrations at Greenwich in 2000 is not going to be a tern- porary dome, but a permanent tent — a marquee de Sade, as it were.
While we may not be at the bright, cut- ting edge of etc., this tent business does not come as such a thunder-striking revelation to some of us as Mr Bayley seems to imag- ine. We recall Lord St John of Fawsley's bright, cutting description of the projected structure, in the House of Lords some months back, as a `wig-wahm' (phonetics by courtesy of Mr Matthew Parris's Times report).
But does it really matter whether this piece of architectural elephantiasis is a dome or a tent? When we hang up our Christmas stockings, our interest in the stockings is very limited. What interests us is this: what is going to go inside?
As far as the Greenwich tent is con- cerned, that is the question which Mr Bay- ley — at this worryingly late stage — seems either unwilling or unable to answer.
He did say, on a recent Kaleidoscope pro- gramme (Radio Four), that the so-called 'Experience' would be about 'who we are, where we live and what we do'. Well, frankly, I already know who I am, where I live and what I do. If I am to make the diffi- cult journey to Greenwich and pay an esti- mated £20 to go into a big tent, a rather more tempting enticement will be needed.
Bevis Hillier
Garrick Club, London WC2
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