ss Great Britain - latest news:
Turning back the clock to secure ship's future
For immediate release, January 12, 2007
The scheme to restore the dockyard buildings alongside Brunel's ss Great Britain and help secure the historic ship's future has received the go-ahead.
The development will recreate the character of the original Victorian dockyard, before it was bombed by the Luftwaffe during the Second World War. To be known as the Brunel Institute, it will house the David MacGregor Library, a new state of the art archive, academic teaching and research, and a schools learning and outreach centre, in a proposed partnership with the University of Bristol.
Work on the £30 million scheme, which has received planning permission from Bristol City Council, includes 145 apartments, and is expected to start later this year.
The move marks a significant and imaginative solution from the ss Great Britain Trust, a charity determined to deliver long-term success and financial sustainability. It follows 10 major award wins in 2006, including the prestigious Gulbenkian Prize - for the 'Museum of the Year'.
Matthew Tanner, Director of the ss Great Britain Trust said: 'This decision is massively important to the future of Brunel's ss Great Britain.'
Mr Tanner, who was awarded an MBE in the New Year Honours list for services to Maritime Conservation, added: 'This will help safeguard the long-term financial future of Brunel's ss Great Britain through the establishment of an endowment fund. It also allows us the chance to develop a world-class archive and learning centre, which we hope to achieve in partnership with the University of Bristol'.
'Bristol City Council, its members and officers, have done justice to Isambard Kingdom Brunel and his memory. This is a wonderful day for the ss Great Britain and for Bristol.'
This is the second part of the Trust's vision to secure the long-term future of Brunel's ss Great Britain as a maritime visitor attraction, museum and education centre. Major conservation work on the ship was completed in July 2005, preserving her historic iron hull under the new glass 'sea', and providing an exciting new visitor experience.
Since the re-launch the ship has welcomed more than 250,000 visitors, with the annual visitor number exceeding 180,000.
Whilst visitor admissions and venue hire contribute to, they will never meet the full cost of caring for this historic ship – approximately £1 million per annum. As Brunel's ss Great Britain receives no financial support from local or national government, her survival as a major national icon depends on securing this additional income.
Thanks to land contributed by Bristol City Council, the regeneration of the Great Western Dockyard will allow the Trust to create a £3.5 million endowment fund which will provide an annual income to reinvest in the ship, and secure her future and the enjoyment of future generations.
The original engine factory and dockside workshops were destroyed during the Bristol Blitz in 1941. Recreating the style and feel of the dockside will create an authentic backdrop and appropriate setting for one of the nation's great industrial treasures, Brunel's ss Great Britain.
The ss Great Britain Trust consulted extensively with local residents and stakeholders across the city and incorporated the feedback into the final designs.
The ground floor accommodation of the development alongside the ss Great Britain will create a home for the proposed Brunel Institute. It is expected that the educational facilities and the 145 one and two-bedroom homes on the upper floors will help breathe new life into the currently semi-derelict dockyard area.
ENDS
For further information, and images, please contact Brunel's ss Great Britain Head of Marketing & Communications Dagmar Smeed 0117 926 0680 ext 219 or mobile 07920-863426 or email dagmars@ssgreatbritain.org
Notes to editors:
1. Brunel's ss Great Britain is the world's first great ocean liner. Launched in 1843 to provide luxury travel to New York , the iron-hulled steamship revolutionised travel and set new standards in engineering, reliability and speed.
Today Brunel's ss Great Britain is one of the UK 's most exciting museums and visitor attractions.
Visitors step back in time in the new Dockyard Museum , before boarding ship as Victorian passengers, to explore the beautifully recreated spaces � from the First Class Dining Saloon and Promenade Deck, to the Engine Room and Steerage. Passengers' and crew members' stories are retold through handheld audio companions. The smell of newly baked bread, musty travellers, a smoky engine room and even vomit help bring the 19th century onboard experience alive.
But it is the ss Great Britain's glass 'sea' which is proving the greatest wow factor for visitors. In true 'Brunelian' spirit, the ship appears to be afloat on what is the roof of a giant dehumidification chamber. Technological innovation, inspirational design and some truly revolutionary features were key to the ship's early success, and remain essential to her ongoing conservation in the 21 st century.
Admission costs just £8.95 for adults (child, family and concessions prices available) and allows free and unlimited return visits for 12 months making Brunel's ss Great Britain remarkable value for money.
In 2006 Brunel's ss Great Britain has welcomed more than 180,000 visitors. A total of 250,000 have visited since the museum attraction's 're-launch' in July 2005.
Special exhibitions are shown in the Baker Gallery, and the events calendar ranges from children's drama and craft workshops to sumptuous Victorian banquets. Brunel's ss Great Britain also welcomes school visits and runs National Curriculum linked workshops.
The process of conservation can never stop and costs more than £1 million per year. The ss Great Britain Trust receives no funding from central or local government and relies on visitors and events held on board as well as the generosity of members and supporters to fund work.
2. Award recognition to date: Winner: The Gulbenkian Prize for Museum of the Year 2006 - the Biggest Arts Prize in the U.K.; Winner: Museum and Heritage Awards for Excellence 2006 - Restoration/Conservation; Winner: Museum and Heritage Awards for Excellence 2006 - Permanent Exhibition; Winner: South West Tourism Excellence Awards: Large Visitor Attraction of the Year 2006; Winner: Civic Trust Award for Architecture 2006 - with special commendation for its access systems; Winner: Bristol Civic Society Environmental Award; Winner: ADAPT Trust Award for 'Excellence in Access' 2006; Highly Commended: Best UK Tourism Project, British Guild of Travel Writers ; Winner: Fenton Holloway, Institute of Structural Engineers' Heritage Infrastructure Award; Winner: Jason Hunt, Bluestone, Construction Industry Award Gold Medal Construction Manager Conservation/ Restoration Category; Winner: The AHI Interpret Britain and Ireland Awards; Commended: Museums & Galleries Month for the 'Rubbish Sculpture' event run in May.
3. Matthew Tanner is also member of the DCMS Advisory Committee on National Historic Ships, and Honorary Secretary of the Association of Independent Museums (AIM). He serves on the Bristol Cultural Development Partnership, and the UK Maritime Curators' Group.
With a background in maritime archaeology and with more than 15 years' experience of historic ships in the museum environment, Matthew created the vision and led the staff team that secured the future of the ss Great Britain . He has studied extensively the problems of saving ships and making them exciting and accessible for the general public, and he has published a number of papers on their preservation, accessibility, and interpretation.
Issued by the ss Great Britain Trust, Great Western Dockyard, Bristol BS1 6TY www.ssgreatbritain.org
Reg charity no. 262158