I NEED HELP FIGURING OUT WHAT (and WHERE) this BUILDING IS IN THE UK.
 

Ok, I am NOT going crazy (I hope!) ;) Some years ago I saw on the Travel Channel (back when it was a valuable channel) a very unique building. I am (almost) positive it is in the UK. It was a round glass building (like in Disney World) and it had a big escalator coming out of it. ... It looked very exciting - but then I forgot about it completely.

Last night I had a dream I was there! (I don't know why I would think of it now - unless all this planning I am doing for my UK trip is stirring up all memories)

I have NO IDEA WHAT OR WHERE this place is. :( (it is NOT the Millenium Dome I am pretty sure - not round enough)

Please Help. (If you can)

I assume you mean in London? No round buildings that I can think of, it sounds more Parisian to me!

is this it?

http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=100089

Could it be the Barbican Center in London?

Could it be the exit from Canary Wharf tube station. This has a large roundish glass roof with a number of escalators coming out of it. Possible the GLA building, but no escalator.

The City Hall is kind of round. Looks awesome when seen from across the river, outside the Tower of London.

Sounds a little like the entrance to the Earth Galleries at the Natural History Museum (is it?)... you go up an escalator which penetrates a large metal fascimile of the globe.

It's the escalator that's tough.

But the Eden Project is both round and futuristic (www.edenproject.com)- as of course is the GLA building that several others nominate

I'm not sure what bldg it is -- but I'm pretty sure it isn't the GLA.

FromAtlanta says the show was several years ago and GLA isn't that old.

M-Kingdom, no, I didn't mean London. I meant UK ... if I was convinced it was in London, then it would be easy enough to find it! ;)

It is driving me crazy! Ok, maybe the escalators are just inside the building. - I know for certain it was some type of entertainment complex and there was a restaurant inside. (Could be the Barbican, but I can't find a picture) - I'm thinking it ISN'T London though (even though I wish it was!) If it was London, I would have seen it when I was there 3 yrs. ago

It was a big round dome (dgruzew, thanks for the help - but that isn't even close)... think Disney World (Epcot Center)

I wish I could give more clues, but I have searched the deepest corners of my brain and that is all I have.

I just realized my mistake. I'm calling it a "dome" - Most people think of half circle shapes when you use that word ... it was a perfectly round building.

Have you looked at the link flanneruk gave you for the eden project? edenproject.com

Maybe Jim Steel had it. Look at the Canary Wharf Station photos here. There are escalators inside.

http://www.freefoto.com/browse.jsp?id=31-33-0

Other thought was the Brighton Dome but can't find any good photos.

I know it's not in the UK, but what about the Pomidou Museum in Paris. It has an escalator incased in a glass tube and rises 3 or 4 stories along the outside of the building.

There is also an impressive set of escalators as you exit the Tube at Canary Wharf in London.

No, not the eden project or the Canary Wharf...

The building I am thinking of is a perfectly round building ... like a globe.- It is also in an urban city. That much I know. It was a big city.

(I am sorry, I just assumed people would understand my "Disney World" comparison...but I forgot we have people from all over the world here)

Maybe I am going crazy...if this building was as popular as I thought it was, surely someone would know what I am talking about.

This is so bizarre! ... I'm going to email "Rick Steves" if anyone is going to know what I am talking about, him or his staff (whoever he gets to answer his emails) will! :)

This is just an off-the-wall guess but might it be the Atomium in Brussels? It's left over from the 1956 World's Fair.

I know there are a few sites where there are huge Radar domes - like on Flyingdales Moor. Not open to the public but they are spherical and can be seen from the North Yorkshire Moors Railway.

(Just a side question Atlanta -- why do you think Rick S. would know what it is? His knowledge of the UK is not nearly as broad as for other parts of Europe)

USNR,

No, that's several small spheres ;) - but that's the spirit! You gave it a "good ol' try!"

(I'm not trying to be sarcastic!...I'm just in a good mood and feeling a little silly :)) )

janis, I respect that question ... there is A CHANCE that it is not even in the UK - but Rick has been traveling for a very long time. (even if he doesn't care enough about most UK cities to even bother including them in his book) - I am not a big fan of his anymore, but I have enough faith in him to know that I can probably count on him for this. (I keep thinking that it has to be a some-what famous building -even if no one knows what it is ;)- because I remember that it was in a big city and they were talking about it like it was something special...not something obscure that you would have to travel out of the way to find. ... It had to be about 7yrs ago (more or less) that I saw this. (time by very fast) I think it was around the time I was planning my first trip to Europe ... So maybe m_kingdom2 was correct. MAYBE it is in Paris because I knew I was going to be taking a side trip to Paris in 1997. (I remember it being somewhere that I might be - that is why I was thinking UK because I was staying in London for 6 weeks for Summer semester in college)... Wherever it is, I never did get to see it -but I want to now!! :(

I am having flashes of memory ... trains. It might have something to do with trains...or near a train station...I don't know. My brain is starting to hurt!! ;)

it sounds more like a Rem Koolhas building (or proposal) - but most of them are in Amsterdam.

I am pretty sure it was not Amsterdam. - Plus, this building was already built and being used in the mid 90's (when I saw the program)