Blaze halts Cutty Sark project

The fire on board The Cutty Sark has dealt a cruel blow to the restoration project, and new visitor centre and museum space, being designed to sit under the ship.

Architect Youmeshehe has designed an ambitious visitor centre for the site, as well as the temporary pavilion in place at the time of this morning’s blaze. The designs were created in collaboration with graphics and exhibitions specialist Designmap and exhibition interiors expert Barry Mazur.

According to Designmap director Daniel Sutton, who was shocked by the news, the masts and important collections had been removed for restoration, which means that the hull would have suffered most of the damage.

The fire leaves a question mark over the future of the design work for the permanent visitor centre and museum space, which was due to start in the next couple of weeks.

It was intended that The Cutty Sark would be suspended three metres above the dock and the exhibition space would appear underneath the vessel. Additionally, a glass canopy was planned to sit midway up the hull to look like a wave.

Sutton adds, ‘The hull looks quite badly damaged. It is bound to have a knock-on effect. We were about to make a start on the scheme and this is a major disruption for what the architects had planned to do.’