News and Press
TLT helps secure key milestone in £30million ss Great Britain development
08 October 2007
TLT's commercial property team has completed a significant milestone in the £30million redevelopment of Brunel's ss Great Britain to help secure its long term future as a maritime visitor attraction, museum and education centre.
Following the negotiation of a 150-year lease from the city council, the team has completed the sale of land around the historic ship, granting developer Linden Homes a 149-year underlease. The development will include 145 apartments, and accommodation for the ss Great Britain Trust’s new research library, archive and education centre in what will become known as the ‘Brunel Institute’. Under the scheme, Brunel’s ss Great Britain receives a significant capital fund that it will invest to help pay towards long-term conservation, maintenance and development of Brunel’s only surviving ship, the ss Great Britain which rests on a glass ‘sea’ in her original Bristol dry dock.
This highly prestigious development scheme will recreate the character of the original Victorian dockyard, before it was destroyed during the Second World War. Much of the ground floor of the development will be owned by the ss Great Britain Trust to house the ‘Brunel Institute’. It will hold the Trust’s nationally important David MacGregor Library, a new state-of-the-art archive and academic teaching and research unit in a proposed partnership with the University of Bristol, and the Trust’s schools learning and outreach centre.
Matthew Tanner MBE, Director of the ss Great Britain Trust, said, “This is not just another development scheme – this will provide a respectful and fitting backdrop to the ss Great Britain, as well as delivering a major fund for investment in the ship’s future.”
Nick Pritchard, partner and commercial property solicitor at TLT says, "Working with the ss Great Britain Trust, Bristol City Council and Linden Homes, we have developed a significant and imaginative solution to secure the historic ship's long term future."
This is the second phase of the vision to secure the long-term future of Brunel’s ss Great Britain. Major conservation work on the ship was completed in July 2005, preserving her historic iron hull under the glass ‘sea’, and providing an exciting new visitor experience.
ISSUED: 8 October 2007