Cutty Sark

[Flyfisher]

Sad news today about the fire on the Cutty Sark (not really a house, I know, but I trust it qualifies as 'period property' in the wider sense).

All the early reports seem to be talking up the arson angle but I've just lstened to someone on the R4's The World At One explaining how security was tightened up for the duration of the current £25m restoration project, which would rather seem to make arson less likely in my mind.

I guess the true cause will be discovered in the next few weeks, but I can't help thinking of the Windsor Castle fire that occurred during a restoration project.

 

[Gareth Hughes]

Sad news today about the fire on the Cutty Sark (not really a house, I know, but I trust it qualifies as 'period property' in the wider sense).
.

But it is (rather bizarrely) a listed building:

Listing Text:

1.
4412 CUTTY SARK GARDENS SE10

The Cutty Sark
TQ 3877 26/231

I


2.
Tea clipper of 963 gross tons, launched in 1869 for China tea trade. After
1877 transferred to Australian wool run. Fastest ship of her time. Now maintained
in special dry dock, as museum and permanent memorial to days of sail, by Cutty
Sark Society.


Listing NGR: TQ3830577866

 

[Nemesis]

Saw it early this morning on the news - a very sad loss. A tremendous blaze.

Workman's blowtorch?

 

[Gareth Hughes]

Saw it early this morning on the news - a very sad loss. A tremendous blaze.

Workman's blowtorch?

On Sunday night?

 

[Nemesis]

Overtime??

Apparently there were bottles of gas on board too, which didn't help.

 

[Craig]

No cylinders on board it seems. Here are a few pics of the hull
http://www.thisislocallondon.co.uk/display.var.1413635.0.0.php
Its awful - poor old boat!

 

[Flyfisher]

Workman's blowtorch?

That seems a better guess, to me, than arson. If that does turn out to be the case then perhaps an insurance company will be footing the bill . . . it would be a huge cheek to expect the taxpayer to foot the bill for such a botch-up, although I've already heard reports calling for renewed fund-raising efforts. Still, I guess we'll all pay for it one way or the other

It's a sad state of affairs to think of the firemen all keeping their distance and watching the poor old girl burn away while someone, somewhere was running around to trying to establish if there were any gas bottles aboard - especially when the latest reports suggest that there weren't any

 

[MdB]

Remember 50% of the wooden structure had been removed so is safe.

 

[Nemesis]

Oh dear. I've sat on the steps nearby and had a picnic many a time. So sad to see that.

 

[Taff in Glaws]

Friends of mine who live a stone's throw from Greenwich (Blackheath) have for the last several weeks been concerned about a spate of arson attacks that intitially involved bins and then some further attempts on a car, obviously these have been reported to the boys in blue. Could be a coincidence or maybe the same irrresponsible idjiot :evil:

 

[Gareth Hughes]

Meanwhile, up north...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/6676245.stm

imagine a situation in which we only had two cathedrals - say, Salisbury and Durham - Durham burns down, and that's good news for Salisbury because that means it might not be demolished for being too expensive to save...

What an interesting (and dismaying) contrast between building conservation and maritime conservation.

 

[Nemesis]

Well I'm not so sure that there is such a difference always.

Too many listing apps have been refused on the grounds that there are already listed examples of the structure or building extant.

The 'variety of responses' reply is one to be taken in such circumstances.

There is certainly - or seems to be - a desire on the part of the powers that be these days to restrict what is added to the lists.

 

[Flyfisher]

Time to resurrect this old post, methinks, following this bit of good news: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17819755

Coincidentally, I started my project around the same time as this sad fire, though I've still got a long way to go before I'm finally finished.
I guess that's the sort of difference that £50m makes. :lol:

 

[meljones35]

Sorry but being from South London originally, and having been on the original many times, I think it is an awful restoration. You can no longer see the hull and there's a glass lift cut right through the decking. Apparently enclosed in glass now so that corporate events can be held in dry dock under hull. How did that ever get permission???!!

 

[Flyfisher]

I watched a report somewhere showing how the hull is now fully suspended, making it possible to walk around and under the hull. The report said this was done to take the strain off the original hull timbers.

 

[CliffordPope]

I think the CS is of composite construction, wooden planks over an iron frame. The wood has fortunately been saved because it had been removed and stored prior to the fire.

I haven't seen the new reconstruction, but I am fearful that it will turn out to be a ghastly travesty of the ship she was.
As a boy I was obsessed with the ship. I was always insisting on taking a river trip down to Greenwich whenever we were up in London, and was fascinated by the magic of the location. She looked exactly as if just temporarily dry-docked, ready to float out on the next tide. It was possible to stand low down and gaze up at her incredible lines.

I believe that even in those days (1960s) some alterations had been made to facilitate visitors. I think wider doors had been cut in the side for example. But it was tastefully done and unobtrusive. As for lifts and glass bubbles ... !

I can't help thinking a more dignified end would have been if the Cutty Sark had been wrecked in her hay-day, driven under at 20 knots in a gale by a crazy master.

 

[MatthewC]

See http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17822570 and make your own mind. I tend to agree with Mel and Clifford above. To me it's a complete travesty of what the ship actually was, but they seem to be proud of what they've done to her.

You can see why it's listed now as it'll never float again, being firmly rooted to the dock!

NB The clip does give the origin of the name Cutty Sark - apparently it's from a Burns poem and is a Scots term for a (ladies?) short undergarment. Hmmm.

 

[worms]

sark= shirt, cutty=short

"Her cutty-sark, o' Paisley harn
That while a lassie she had worn,
In longitude tho' sorely scanty,
It was her best, and she was vauntie.."
(Burns, Tam o' Shanter)

 

[Flyfisher]

Oh dear. How sad to resurrect this topic after seven years for the same reason . . .
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-29680243

Fortunately, early reports suggest the the fire was quickly controlled and that there was relatively little damage, presumably due to precautions implemented during the previous fire restoration.

What's that old saying about once being unfortunate but twice looking like carelessness?

 

[essexbearhunter]

Glad that this was only a minor fire. I visited it earlier this year (along with The Ranger's House and the Royal Observatory) and was intrigued by the way they had treated it.
It is a far more compact site than SS Great Britain and greater use has been made of the area beneath the glass "sea" that the ship sits in. I sense that this large open area -with a cafe at one end and a display of figureheads at the other- was a sensible way of creating a revenue-earning "hospitality hall" and exhibition area as well as allowing everyone to see the outside of the hull.
Hopefully this - and the insurance - can rectify the latest damage.

I hope that the two cabin areas escaped. In a ship largely devoted to informative modern displays , these felt like the main physical contact with the old ship.