Proposed Spitfire memorial at Southampton

No apologies required for projects in danger. The Council should cough up a pittance for this endeavour. My father worked on the Shieldhall as a volunteer, the name of which is incidentally a suburb of Glasgow.

Slightly OT! Whilst the funding and planning for this project – some £2Million I understand and against the background of the £12Million being spent on the Titanic themed maritime museum at the Guildhall – elsewhere in Southampton the City Council seems reluctant to safeguard the heritage it already has.

The SS Shieldhall built in the 1950s for Glasgow Corporation and later used by Southern Water has been preserved at Southampton since the late 1980s. Now, along with many other historic ships, it is under threat through lack of funding.

Details from the BBC today:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-12112086

SS Shieldhall site:

http://www.ss-shieldhall.co.uk/Shieldhall/Welcome.html

Hmm…. Could have been a bit more imaginative…. :rolleyes:

So the winner wasn’t even in the final six that were shortlisted?

Here’s the winner –

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/world-war-2/battle-of-britain/8114453/Winning-design-chosen-for-national-Spitfire-memorial.html

Thanks Tim, I didn’t forget them (or Austin, Belgium, & Canada), but the point I’m getting at is where would you draw the line at putting up memorials at different sites for one aircraft type and how difficult it is really to pick out one site to do so.
I do believe the factories and their workers should have some form of memorial though.

It dosen’t help when they come up with ideas such as above, where it has to be huge and costs £2 million (can you buy a whole Spit for that?), it turns people against the idea of memorials at all.

The actual location for any memorial is 1-1 and at the birth place of R.J.Mitchell .Without his design skills and tireless work there would never have been a Spitfire for the few to fight with. 2million for a 100 foot spitfire indeed another license to print money from a local authority who seem to have a surplus of money and nothing better to do with it.

Number 2 hits the button for me in style and effect, but, the angle of flight and the proximity to the ground does not look realistic.

Hurricane Memorial

I am all up for a Hurricane memorial at Kenley common.The most complete surviving BOB airfield “still in use”.
There are e pens still there for a location and the City of London (the owners) are making the place more “visitor friendly” every year.
Anyway the Hurricane is too proud to worry about such things, it knows it did the main bit when required and that was after giving the Germans a taste of what was to come in France.
The Hurricane was never overshadowed by the Spitfire just a victim of wartime hype.
The Hurricane’s were producing “aces” in France before the Spitfires had started.
Pobjoy

I was waiting for a flight at Eastleigh yesterday. A cruise ship that looked more like a ro-ro car carrier with windows had discharged passengers who were flying home through the airport. They were all busy talking about the bingo halls aboard these ships, and flight delays. Putting a 100 foot wingspan Spitfire in front of these people would only bewilder them. .

Speedy…… Your last comment is incredibly patronising.

Have to say I am not overly keen on the project (despite being a Southampton “lad”) but for entirely other reasons.

Planemike

firstly, dreadful website that newspaper has ! As for the proposals, they are a bit of a bu99ers muddle as my old dad would have said.

number six has its merits, and the one with what looked like a MK 24 (can’t look at the images again) on a spiral was OK.

The aircraft should surely be a MK1 (however stylised and enlarged) or even K5054?

Option 6 for me.

Moggy

I like the simplicity of #3 (James Burnell’s design, from Bournemouth)….

I wish they would stop the hair brained ideas down in that area and throw some money into something like the Upper Hill Swift instead!

Hear hear! Or, indeed, WK198.

Southampton seems consistently to either miss opportunities or go completely over the top on expenditure – especially on “arts” projects at the expense of heritage – and are not alone amongst Britsih cities in that. “Think Tank” at Birmingham springs to mind. About 20 years ago, there was a solid proposal to expand the Maritime Museum and to relocate it to a new development adjacent to Ocean Village. This came to nought.

Now, the funding has recently been agreed to convert and expand the existing Guildhall to incorporate a maritime collection of which the RMS Titanic story will form a major part. The location is OK but why ignore the opportunity of locating the museum next to Southampton’s waterfront. Then you could see real ships too! I’m not even sure if any full size vessels will feature in this hugely expensive project. It’s all very well attracting capital funding but what will happen if, in the long term, visitor numbers are unable to support its revenue income.

BBC report on Southampton’s new Titanic musuem:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/hampshire/8592492.stm

‘Sounds utterly vulgar.

I agree about keeping it 1:1 scale, but if it is going to be done put it at the Southamton Hall of Aviation. It should cost a lot less than 2 million too, but looking at their new £19 million cruise shed, I expect they’ll be able to share out £2 million with an equally dismal result. Also ask the few surviving WW2 pilots what they think of this idea first. So’ton should consider using such funds to sponsor a flying Spitfire based in Eastleigh, in my view.

I was waiting for a flight at Eastleigh yesterday. A cruise ship that looked more like a ro-ro car carrier with windows had discharged passengers who were flying home through the airport. They were all busy talking about the bingo halls aboard these ships, and flight delays. Putting a 100 foot wingspan Spitfire in front of these people would only bewilder them. So’ton should spend money in better ways.

I counldn’t agree more “Peals before swine” I think the saying goes Perhaps someone should just tell the city council ?
Regards to all Ant

They all look a bit “meh” to me. Number 1 or 5 would get my vote, but rather grudgingly…

They have now reduced the thousands of entries to a final six.
http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/photographs/news_galleries/spitfire_memorial/

Richard