The Royal Yacht Britannia deserves a fine landscape setting – not a trashy mooring

Britain’s last Royal Yacht, the Britannia, is now ‘permanently moored as a five-star visitor attraction in the historic Port of Leith, Edinburgh’ and the setting is a total disgrace. The ghastly building which dwarfs the yacht is Ocean Terminal ‘an urban shopping centre & entertainment complex designed by Conran & Partners in London and handed over to Keppie Design’. Though I am pleased Scotland has regained a parliament, I am very disappointed by its lack of design and planning vision. The nearest they have to a design policy is ‘Hey Jock, what the hell, let’s get it built asap’. That ugly slab of a building is as ugly inside as it is outside and one can imagine that the planning officers were promised a lifetime’s supply of haggis in return for mooring the poor yacht here. I would like to see a competition for finding a better landscape setting for the old lady. Where can one find the best examples of historic ships moored in beautiful and romantic settings?

Rule Britannia!
Britannia rule the waves.
Britons never, never, never shall be slaves.
The nations, not so blest as thee, (eg Scotland)
Must in their turn, to tyrants fall,
Must in ,must in, must in their turn, to tyrants fall,
While thou shalt flourish, shalt flourish great and free,
The dread and envy of them all.
Rule Britannia!
Britannia rule the waves.
Britons never, never, never shall be slaves.

11 thoughts on “The Royal Yacht Britannia deserves a fine landscape setting – not a trashy mooring

  1. Tian Yuan

    I have partly shared your feeling regarding to disappointing five-star visitor attraction. As a Laowai, maybe, I cannot provide much useful advice, but I just have done a lecture translation about landscape architecture, which makes me almost addict to it when I read in Chinese with the pictures. I really would like to make some comments to this landscape setting although it may not be right.(1)We need many seeds:a simple method is to plant some grass there, at least, green is better than bald (2)We need a shining colour: an easy way may be to give a warm yellow or mysterious violet for the middle iron fence (3)We need vertical garden: it may be a good idea to wear a ‘green wall’ clothes on this ugly building.

    Reply
  2. Tom Turner Post author

    Very good. I was thinking about moving the Britannia to a better location but re-designing the setting is a good policy. I think the land in the foreground is probably scheduled for an (ugly) building at some point. It would be very easy for them to grow climbers on the Oceaan Terminal and you are right that it would look much better. But where would you put the bright colour? – and might it not compete with the ship. Part of the problem is that the benighted planners saw the ship as a ‘Five Star Visitor Attraction’ – this means a place where you can make loads of cash from visitors. So it was a thing to go inside rather than a thing to appreciate from afar.
    PS it is of interest that this is the ship on which the last governor of Hong Kong sailed out of the harbour – an event which many people see as the Last Act of the British Empire. To inaugurate a new era of British-Chinese Friendship I think Red would be a good choise for the bright colour you would like to see. There are some dark moments in British imperial history but I do not see Hong Kong as one of them. It should not have been taken by force but the fact of its existence seems, to me, to have done a fair amount of good in SE Asia? I sometimes wonder if we should offer China a 100-year lease on the Isle of Wight to see what we can learn from the experience. I can see that this idea might not be popular on the Isle – maybe Sheppy would be a better choice (there is still a fair chance of a new airport being built in the Thames nearby, so journeys to China would be easy).

    Reply
  3. Tom Turner Post author

    The Britannia is not big enough to serve as a hotel but it was built for visiting wonderful places – and this does not include a cheapskate shopping centre at the back end of the former Leith Docks.

    Reply
  4. Tom Turner Post author

    Excellent idea though, being practical, it would be enough to have a few pick-up points in the Firth of Forth: Leith, Newhaven, Granton, Queensferry, Rosyth. People would only have short trips but that would be enough. Everyone would have the pleasure of seeing the ship at see. There could be special viewing points on the Calton Hill and the Castle Rock. It would be Urban Theatre of the best kind.

    Reply
  5. Lawrence

    As one might expect, Hamburg has a couple of historic ships, the Rickmer Rickmers [ http://www.flickr.com/photos/57621291@N00/242889484/ ] and the Cap San Diego [ http://www.flickr.com/photos/crohweder/261837171/ ]. The Cap San Diego was one of the last traditional cargo ships, pushed out of service by container ships, The Rickmer Rickmers a sailing cargo ship plying routes to Hong Kong and Chile. Both ships are runs as museums, have restaurants and can be rented for events. One of the highlights of the Hamburg gay events calendar is the Leather Ball, the biggest event of its kind in Europe and held annually on the Cap San Diego. Both ships are kept in full working order by teams of enthusiastic volunteers mechanics.

    Reply
  6. Tom Turner Post author

    They are giving the Cutty Sark a glass skirt to protect it from the weather. It is not yet clear whether it will be more like crumpled bubblewrap or a breaking wave but, in the spirit of openness, the Cuttysark website has this comment “From the comments above there seems to be fairly universal dislike of this revised design. It is notable that the earlier design, which can still be seen on the architect Grimshaw’s website, did not extend nearly so far up the hull leaving much more of the ship on view. I am unaware of any public explanation of why the design has been changed to make the glasshouse so much more prominent. The original design image is credited to Youmeheshe, an unknown architectural practice who were Grimshaw’s subcontractor for the project although they seem to be off the job now. One wonders whether it was Youmeheshe’s inexperience that caused there to be problems with the design. Through the medium of this blog comment I would ask that Grimshaw provide an explanation of why they have changed the glasshouse so that it now covers up so much of the hull.” The project is overbudget and overtime. The chief engineer has resigned, saying it will damage the ship.

    Reply

Leave a Reply to Tom Turner Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *