A Titanic Weekend in Belfast

The weekend of 14th April was the centenary of the sinking of the Titanic, a hugely significant date in the maritime and social history of Belfast. We had arranged to visit the city for a Van Morrison dinner concert taking place that weekend in The Culloden Hotel. We had set out innocent of all knowledge of the imminent anniversary but as soon as we stepped off the plane and got to the centre it became apparent that Belfast was deep in the throes of a titanic Titanicfest. 

Titanic Tours

Easons bookstore's contribution

Some of the leaflets picked up at the airport

Belfast also has a strong Dissenter tradition

Human "Icebergs" in the city centre

World's largest Titanic model constructed entirely from balloons

Sanity restored at The Crown Liquor Saloon

....with a couple of pints of the blackstuff

The Titanic was oozing out of every one of Belfast's pores; turning every corner it was impossible to avoid Titanic Tarts, Titanic Beer, Titanic Sandwiches, Titanic Bus Tours, Titanic Books, Titanic Cappuchinos, Build it Yourself Titanics, Sink Your Own Titanics, Titanic Titanics everywhere. Even Queens Island which was where Harland & Wolff had built the Titanic and thousands of other ships since the mid 19th century, had itself been renamed. It is now grandiloquently called The Titanic Quarter and is destined to be developed to become a new city on the edge of  the city. 

Is what it says

Belfast is where the Titanic was conceived, designed and built  and it is here that the curious visitor can still find traces of that magnificent doomed enterprise. On Queen's Island you can visit the derelict Drawing Offices in which draughtsmen meticulously planned and drew the positions of every single one of the tens of thousands of rivets that stitched the steel hull together. The slipways from which she was launched also still remain. You can walk by the Thompson Dry Dock where she was fitted out and see the original pump-house that was used to drain the water from the dock.  

A scale model of the ship with Titanic Belfast in background

The "King of the World" pose is seemingly mandatory

 The centrepiece of the redevelopment of the old shipbuilding area is what is billed as the world's greatest Titanic Museum - "Titanic Belfast". Here visitors are invited to immerse themselves in the life of 1900s Belfast a city which then was an industrial superpower with shipbuilding, engineering works and linen manufacturing. From this base of technical knowledge came the confidence and the expertise to build the Leviathan of the Oceans. From this historical starting point the visitor traces the development of the project using modern interactive technology and at one juncture a Disneyesque Shipyard Ride in which you sit in a computer controlled capsule which wafts you through a virtual shipyard. Given Belfast's recent industrial decline it is not a little significant and ironic that one of the commentary options in the capsule is Chinese, the language of our generation's industrial superpower.

The Titanic Visitor's Centre was one of several highlights during our visit. The exterior design of the building reflects the scale and shape of the prow of The Titanic whilst the reflective quality of its cladding panels evokes thoughts of the crystalline reflectiveness of its nemesis the Iceberg. It rises up five floors like the decks of the ship.

A line from Thomas Hardy as noted in the exhibition

An "Airfix" sculpture of The Titanic

The atrium extends to the top of the building and is faced with corroded steel panels

The ship goes down

The exhibition gallery on the first floor shows the rapidly changing Belfast of the 19th century with its range of interconnected industries; the displays concerning the linen mills, rope works and the early years of Harland &Wolff are particularly detailed and innovative. Of note are gigantic projected photographs of city locations with shadowy Edwardians moving across them, giving the feeling that you are present in a fabulous gothic city. The second floor includes temporary exhibition galleries and educational facilities. The third & fourth levels are dedicated to the building of the Titanic, laying the keel, framing, plating and riveting, bulkheads and decking and exhibition galleries which are impressive as they show such detail as the magnificent linen cupboard, the sanitary fittings, a drinks cabinet, a first class and third class cabin, behind the scenes on the Titanic and a display that tells the story of the maiden voyage emphasising the class distinctions.

The last picture, taken as the ship left Queenstown

A reconstruction of one of the lifeboats

 A highlight is an immersive projected computer simulation of all of the Titanic's decks with the virtual view rising from the depths of the engine room up to the top deck through the various class-defined decks between. Finally, the top floor supports an elegant banqueting hall and hospitality suites. Here the centrepiece is a full sized faithful reproduction of Titanic's own grand staircase which controversially is only accessible to those who visit as part of a corporate junket. 

We allowed the best part of a day for our visit.

On the river in closeby SailorTown we discovered The Belfast Barge, a museum, restaurant, bar and performance space owned and operated by Lagan Legacy, a professionally staffed charitable heritage organisation. Its focus is on the city's seagoing and industrial heritage.

When the shipyards of Harland and Wolff were being demolished for scrap a group of local activists suddenly realised a valuable historical resource was in danger of being lost forever. They managed to rescue the shipyard's artefacts including such items as blueprints of ship designs and shipyard timeclocks just days before the wrecking balls of the demolition squads wrought their havoc. The fruits of their labours have been preserved on a Dutch barge now moored behind Belfast's Waterfront Centre. Here they celebrate the diversity of jobs that shipbuilding supported. Rat Killers, Bottom Scrapers, Message Boys, Joiners, Upholsterers, Divers, Rivetters, Draughtsmen, Watchmen to mention but a few.

The Barge

The bar is an intimate and sociable space

The Barge is a floating memorial to a lost industry.  In the bowels of that Dutch Barge they have fashioned a small and intimate perfomance space.

The set of "A Better Boy" in the bowels of The Barge

There we watched a short play called A Better Boy written by John Wilson Foster, an Academic who was raised and educated in Belfast and pursued a career in Canadian Universities where he wrote several treatises on the Titanic. In this play,based upon a real interview,which both  the character of Sir William J. Pirrie, Chairman of Harland & Wolff has agreed to a newspaper interview in memory of his nephew Thomas Andrews who was the chief designer of the Titanic. 

Ironically the interview was conducted in the underwater saloon in the middle of a lake in his residence at Witley Park in Surrey. He recalls Tommy's childhood, his early days as an Apprentice aged 16 at Harland & Wolff and his last moments aboard the stricken liner. It is a fine play which moves and informs. We learn Thomas kept bees and this fact is used by the playwright to illustrate Thomas Andrew's care for the fate of the Titanic's passengers. In evidence to the Titanic Inquiry one of the survivors descibed how those left on the sinking ship were like swarming bees clinging to the decks. A Better Boy personalises the tragedy and deserves future performances in other theatres throughout Ireland and England.


All over the city dinners and events, including the opening of a Remembrance Garden at Belfast's City Hall marked the Titanic's centenary. 

The new memorial carries the names of all of the dead

We had dinner at James Street South, a restaurant which aspires to gourmet status. There we had their "Titanic Tasting Menu" which offered a flavour of the food in the 1st class Dining room. Each or the dishes was paired with appropriate wines. The menu included such treats as oyster with champagne sabayon, consomme with scallop, cucumber and celeriac, lamb, peaches in chartreuse jelly, chocolate and vanilla eclairs and petit fours.

As for Van Morrison! He was excellent, as was the atmosphere in the Culloden, a lovely hotel that looks over Belfast Lough. It was a magical evening and one which brought an enjoyable visit to my home city to a fabulous close.

Van the Man

Umhh!

Stanfords, A London Treasure

At the entrance

Apart from the joy of reading books (and writing them!) there is also the pleasure to be had from just browsing in bookshops and handling the goods. Last weekend I visited Stanfords, probably Britain's best travel bookshop. The store is in Covent Garden's Floral Street, just down the road from Paul Smith's flagship clothes shop. It is spread over three storeys in the same premises where it expanded to as a comprehensive travel bookshop in 1901. A grand open staircase connects the three floors of maps, books and all sorts of other travel related goodies. Throughout these floors gigantic oversized maps have been artfully used as floor and ceiling coverings. 

In the basement

Just to explore Stanfords will allow you to experience the thrill of travel to exotic destinations. Entering Stanfords conjures memories of a time when foreign travel equalled adventure,when the Paris Boat train could connect you to the mysteries of the East via the Orient Express, when a trunk rather than a carry-on was the baggage of choice. As well as guide books there are many shelves with books recounting traveller's tales, the experiences of intrepid travellers of past and present. Many famous explorers "Grand Tourists" have made the shop their first stop when planning a trip.  Amy Johnson, Florence Nightingale, Cecil Rhodes, Dr Livingstone and Michael Palin are just a few of their customers.

The main floor

The shop's founder, Edward Stanford, began his career as  a map seller during the Victorian era when British colonialism was turning much of the world's maps pink. He established a specialist cartography shop on Charing Cross Road in 1853. His business thrived and twenty years later he moved to larger premises just up the road.  In 1901 further expansion found them moving to their present location. With the increased mobility brought about by cheaper air travel in the 1960s there has been continuing growth in demand for their maps and guides. 

The pricing is competitive

By 2001 the shop had been enlarged and modernised. The visitor is surrounded by maps, globes, guide books and endless shelves of travel fiction. As with most modern bookshops there is also a cafe where you can sit and read what you've snaffled after your trawl through the shelves.

Choosing the right map

Whilst Stanfords promotes travel literature of all kinds including a vast collection of novels set in every country, the Company also hosts literary events and it sponsors lectures delivered by notable writers from The Royal Geographical Society. In the past, Stanfords secured specialist maps that could be difficult to obtain because some countries considered mapping to be a secret or military function. The persistent Stanfords staff sought them out from helpful foreign survey offices and would purchase a year's supply at a time and discreetly ship them back to London. Did I read somewhere that when the Falklands / Malvinas were invaded the Government headed down to Stanfords to buy up their South Atlantic stock?

If it has been mapped, Stanfords will have it

Probably not a best seller at the moment..

A part of the England section

Today's Guardian carries an article by Tim Waterstone, founder of Waterstones bookshops, in which he decries what he sees as the malign influence of Amazon on the U.K. booktrade. Amazon managed to generate sales of £3.3 BILLION last year and yet paid not a penny of Corporation Tax on the profit. 

http://bit.ly/HLscK3

Where do you want to go?

The fact that Amazon is dodging its public duty by contributing nothing to the UK exchequer has made me more determined to put even more of my business towards Coles, my local bookshop. Like Stanfords, Coles provides an individual and personal service. Nigel, the owner, and his helpful team order in books on request, host poetry and literary events and best of all I can browse and handle books in a friendly, pleasant, local bookshop. We all use Amazon but we should also do as much as we can to support our local bookshops.

A global business....

Browsing the stock - one of the pleasures of a real bookshop

 One of the topics for discussion at The Historical Novel's Conference in London during the last weekend of September is Exotic Locations in Historical Fiction. Among the countries to be covered are Japan and Ladakh.

 http://bit.ly/zprVlv

Have a look at the site - you might find yourself booking one of the sessions.

She Stoops to Conquer at The National Theatre

Hayward Gallery from The National Theatre terrace

 She Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith is one of those plays I always thought I had seen but actually never had, not unless I saw it as a school production way back when. Written and set in the eighteenth century, it is currently showing at London's National Theatre. It is the best play I have seen so far this season. Oliver Goldsmith is an inspiring writer for any aspiring writer. His secret is apparent in an essay on National Prejudices where he once wrote the following:

As I am one of that sauntering tribe of mortals who spend the greater part of their time in taverns, coffee houses, and other places of public resort, I have thereby an opportunity of observing an infinite variety of characters, which to a person of a contemplative turn, is a much higher entertainment than a view of all the curiosities of art or nature...

 Most authors, poets and playwrights would agree that skilled observation is an essential tool for writers. Goldsmith believed that real comedy was an art form that would make people laugh. During the eighteenth century there was a fashion for sentimental comedy which did not interest Goldsmith. For example, many theatre goers regarded puns as low humour and snobs considered the comic dialogue in Goldsmith's plays gross. None the less, at the time, She Stoops to Conquer was, to Goldsmith's great relief, well received. This may have been thanks to support from his friends Samuel Johnson and Sir Joshua Reynolds. It was a  play that succeeded in making people laugh. 

The set for She Stoops to Conquer

There is much more to the National Theatre than 'the play'. Our recent visit to the National began with a delicious lunch in the Mezzanine restaurant which is just a convenient step or two away from the three perfoming spaces at the National. We regularly visit the RSC at Stratford where, although the restaurant occupies a delightful space at the top of the new RSC building with enchanting views over the river, the menu and cooking simply do not compare with that at the Mezzanine. The Mezzanine overlooks the River Thames and the best tables are, without doubt, by the window with an opportunity to watch the constant traffic on the river and the continual passeggiata along the embankment. 

My starter, Beet Salad with Candied Pecans

Smoked Salmon, pickled Cucumber and Beetroot Granita

Herb Crusted Pollock with petit pois

Plaice Goujons, Chips and chunky Tartar Sauce

An added attraction of eating in the Mezzanine is that one can eat dessert during the play's interval, a pleasant experience especially when accompanied by an appropriate tipple.

Sticky Toffee Black Forest Gateau!

Hmm I wonder what this was... whatever, it was delish

Lunch over and on to the play- I have never laughed as much at an eighteenth century play as I did at She Stoops to Conquer. Sarah Moyle was brilliant as Mrs Hardcastle.
 Her occasional ad libs surprised others in the cast who rose to them. As in One Man, Two Guvnors, the actors created deliberate interaction with their audience. This further enhances the comedy because they develop a sense of audience complicity in the developing storyline. There is not a weak performance in She Stoops to Conquer. At the end the audience stood and applauded.

It is possible to spend a whole day at The National if, in addition to having a delicious lunch and catching a show, you take a backstage tour which only costs a few pounds.

The Tour assembles by the Box Office

 On the tour you will see how the sets are built on huge dollies, platforms with wheels, that are trundled back and forth as the repertoire changes from day to day. The meticulousness of the organisation can be judged from small detail such as props laid out on tables, each labelled with actor and scene. Period authenticity is evident in the detail. Bottles of Guiness for Juno and the Paycock had corks rather than steel caps. You may not photograph the backstage sets because the copyright of the sets belongs not to The National Theatre but to the freelancers who execute the designs. On the tour you will see the prop store, costumes, armoury, carpentry shop and much more. It is a fascinating insight into what goes on behind the scenes. You can even make a close-up acquaintance with one of the war-horse puppets.

As the tour proceeds you will also see the dressing rooms and if you are lucky you might just bump into an actor in a backstage corridor or doing pre-show voice exercises on the dark Olivier stage. Our tour was conducted by a member of staff who was witty, entertaining and informative.

The empty Olivier

Exhibitions are constantly changing in the lobbies of the National Theatre. The current exhibitions are of London Print Makers and a collection of photographic portraits of actors present and past. Lunch-time musicans entertain in the ground floor lobby. The Bookshop has a comprehensive selection of books related to plays shown in the theatre over the years. There are often street entertainers and events with reference to theatre outside, spilling over onto the embankment, especially during the summer season.

So, you see, a visit to London's National Theatre can be a lot more than seeing a play. London's National Theatre is worth allowing time for, since it is not necessary to even go to see a play to have an enjoyable day out and a pleasant lunch or dinner.

The London Printmakers Exhibition in the Lobby

Yum

And finally a question. Have you seen something at The National Theatre that is memorable and that you would like to share?

Exterior at night