Commemorate the centenary of the 'Titanic' by exploring its history, writes ROSITA BOLAND
1. Titanic Belfast, Queen’s Island
Titanic Belfast, the new £97 million (€116.29 million) dockside building, is described by the Northern Ireland Tourist Board as “the world’s largest Titanic experience”. The distinctive multi-prow shaped building, designed by Eric Kuhne Associates, is being marketed as the key attraction in the Titanic Quarter, and is expecting 425,000 visitors in its first year. It opens to the public today.
This gloriously dramatic building is at the centre of the city’s other Titanic sites, and is an eye-catching addition to the skyline. The interior, however, which has six floors and nine galleries, delivers a surprisingly old-fashioned experience.
There are several challenges in designing an “experience” around a century-old event. One is the internet. There is virtually nothing on the story boards or multi-media in Titanic Belfast about the ship, its construction or passengers that you can’t find easily – and in more detail – on the ’net.
The other is the dilemma around original artefacts, or tangible links with the ship and its passengers. The only artefacts here are the old Harland and Wolff shipyard gates. In one of the galleries you can make a huge wall of plastic lifejackets and project an image of a ship sinking on it but it doesn’t carry a visceral, emotional impact, in the way one original lifejacket would.
Belfast actually has original artefacts on loan, but they’re not here, they’re at the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum. In the absence of artefacts, the focus is on “sensory experience”. The galleries take you through the narrative of the ship, from construction to sinking and aftermath. There is heat and the noise of rivets being hammered, a ride through a “shipyard”, the sound of morse code clicking as the Marconi signals go out, darkness in the gallery where the ship sinks, and footage of the wreck.
Dominating the upper floors are various large function rooms and bars. One has a near-copy of the staircase in the first class area of the Titanic. There have already been 200 bookings for these rooms. Titanic Belfast is marketing itself as “the world’s largest Titanic visitor experience” but it may be more accurate to describe it as a landmark building catering for functions, with an onsite Titanic-themed attraction.
2. Nomadic, Hamilton dry dock, Queen’s Island
The SS Nomadic was built by Harland and Wolff for the White Star Line and launched in 1911. She ferried passengers to the Titanic at Cherbourg and is the last surviving White Star Line ship. For years, she was a restaurant on the Seine, but was bought and returned to Belfast, where a restoration project is underway.
Many of the ship’s features, such as the panelled ceiling, light-fittings and benches, are identical to those in Titanic.
You can see the boat at Hamilton dry dock, where it will remain permanently. It’s due to open to tours in the autumn.
3. Titanic’s Dock and Pump-House, Queen’s Island
The Thompson dock, where Titanic was painted, is an astonishing piece of social and engineering history. This vast, deep dock, is only about one third the size of an inverted Titanic.
At one end are huge wooden gates that keep out Belfast Lough. They are due to be replaced and, when the are, visitors will be able to walk on the dock floor, and get a sense of the size and scale of the ships the dock served. One of the five original capstans that tethered Titanic in this dock survives. Beside the dock is the pump house, where water was pumped out once the gates had admitted a ship, and closed again. The charm of this period building is that the interior is more or less as it was a century ago, including tools.
[ titanicsdock.com ]
4. The Ulster Folk and Transport Museum, Bangor Road, Holywood
Titanica is the name of the exhibition here and the real attraction are the artefacts from the ship. The museum holds the Harland and Wolff archives. The items are on loan, and include a soup tureen, a shirt, a porthole, pieces of tiles, a pack of cards, a hot water bottle and other fragments.
The exhibition also includes information on the shipbuilding tradition in Belfast and the contribution workers made to Harland and Wolff.
[ nmni.com ]
5. The Drawing Offices of Harland and Wolff, Queen’s Island
The two former offices are where both Titanic and Olympic were designed, and are sandwiched between the building that held the head office of Harland and Wolff. These beautiful, atmospheric spaces are in need of renovation. They will either be restored as the original drawing offices, or rebuilt as a boutique hotel.