urbanglasgow.co.uk

escotregen

I'm on the board of one of the organisation in a consortia hoping to bring back to the Clyde the liner 'Empress of Britian'. I've told my board that someone on the urbanglasgow site will be able to help with the £9 million

:

A consortium of housing associations, along with Glasgow City Council, local regeneration companies and Anniesland College, have joined forces to try to save an iconic liner and promote her preservation as part of the overall regeneration of the Clyde.

Linthouse, Partick, GHA and Link Group is campaigning to save the SS Empress of Britain, which they fear may soon be sold for scrap.

The liner is the last available transatlantic liner of her type and era which was built on Clydeside. Completed for the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1956, she initially sailed weekly from Greenock to Montreal.
Now named SSTopaz, a buyer is needed for the iconic liner, and the consortium has alerted national and local newspapers and broadcasters to the imminent demise of what would be a unique and real monument to Clyde shipbuilding and enterprise.

The consortium hopes that a 'champion' might emerge to fund her purchase her and return her to the place of her birth. Conversion for use as a hotel, leisure complex, conference centre and social enterprise 'hub' would have the potential to contribute to economic regeneration in Glasgow, Greenock or elsewhere in the area.

The consortium's spokesperson, Craig Sanderson of Link, said: “The Empress has had an uninterrupted career as a cruise liner for 52 years, an astonishing record and testament to the excellence of her builders, Fairfields of Govan.

“Growing up in Rothesay, I used to watch her gliding past the Skelmorlie coast - and I'm sure others of a certain age have fond memories of her too. We must not let her go without a fight!

“Sadly, the current members of the consortium are not commercial organisations or experts in the field of ships or hotels and do not have access to the sort of money needed to buy her or fund conversion. So, we need some big hitters to help - if your readers know of anyone who has some £9m to spare....”
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We're no supposed to talk about that.

AlanM

cybers · Posted: Thu Jun 19, 2008 1:51 pm Post subject:

Alas we dont have a very good record when it comes to saving our maritime heritage.
Not only did Glasgow drown her Cutter but they then sent her down to Irvine to die...
I wish i could be more upbeat about the whole thing but thinking what could happen here makes me sad.
After all they sent the Brittania to Edinburgh to build a shopping centre round.
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MY FLICKR

Alex Glass · Posted: Thu Jun 19, 2008 8:09 pm Post subject:

Anything I can do to help

Would be happy to dip into my piggy bank and add a £1 to Alan's £9 to round it off

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I had a dream today

ALEX G @ flickr

Chief Inspector · Bag of chips Joined: 03 Aug 2007 Posts: 146

When you think what it would cost to build a 5* hotel in Glasgow £9M
is not that much,with all that is happening on the River Clyde there is still no real focal point for the river bar a broken bridge

Hope someone can make the effort to bring this gem back to where
she belongs.
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evening all

escotregen · Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2008 12:53 pm Post subject:

Right, AlanM and Alex can get a shot each on the big boat when it comes... Chief Inspector can oversee the collections... cybers will be made to pay more for lacking sufficient hope

But seriously on cybers point, I'm thinking that it just may be that there is a level of awareness around now that we have missed the boat (sorry!) on some of the things like Cutty Sark and that we have very little to show for our clydeside shipbuilding heritage. When the odd thing is acheived, like saving the riverside cranes at Broomielaw and at John Browns, it reverberates strongly with the public. It just might be that we could get sufficient institutional goodwill this time around to get soemthing achieved.

... now I need to get on with my pre-planning, where's that lifebelt I use to use on Ayr beach?
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We're no supposed to talk about that.

Lone Groover · Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2008 8:32 am Post subject:

It is a funny thing the River Clyde - Bloody great bit of water and not a bloody boat in sight !

I had some visitors ataying a while back & when we went down to the river (by the Science centre) we were all of the opinion that this was a waste of valuable space - in terms of there being nothing there to do once you have seen the Science centre once & been to the Imax. No cafe to sit and spend time near the river or enjoy the views- just a bad tempered attendant wanting £2.00 to park for ten minutes. !
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I don't know what your problem is, but I bet it's hard to pronounce !