A £400 million development intended to transform Southampton seafront is another step closer, following the signing of a Development Agreement for Royal Pier earlier this month.
Red Funnel customers might be forgiven for thinking the artist’s impression above looks vaguely familiar.
They’d be right, for the Royal Pier development – which intends to create 6,000 new jobs – sits on the current site of the Red Funnel ferry terminal.
The development is intended to showcase “the international face of the city”, and will see the waterfront revitalised, with new shops, a super-casino, office space, residential property and new waterside attractions.
Red Funnel terminal would move
As you can see from the image above, the current Red Funnel terminal is slap bang in the middle of where the development is planned, the tall ship is exactly where the car ferry comes in (don’t be confused by the reclaimed land to the left of the tall ship).
We got in touch with Red Funnel to see what they thought about the plans and they were very positive about the development.
Not surprising, given the plans include a new super-duper purpose-built terminal for both the car and foot passenger ferries on Pier 50 (just to the right of the marina).
Click on image to see larger version
Berth 50 – Glamours past
In our research about the docks, we discovered that Berth 50 was previously a flying boat terminal with some fantastic history.
Update 21 March: Many thanks to Peter Hall who got in touch to give us this further background on Berth 50 and the Flying boats that left from there.
- Southampton – Flying boat services 1919 – 1958
- Disused Station: Southampton flying boat terminal
- Aquila Airways and The Great Flying Boats of Madeira
Public consultation
Now the agreement has been signed, a public consultation will take place and plans drawn up by RPW (Southampton) Ltd will be submitted to the council.
Simon Letts, Leader of Southampton City Council, said:
“We are very excited by these proposals. The Royal Pier Waterfront development is the flagship project in our overall plan to further enhance our city’s reputation as a first-class destination to live, work and visit.”
Southampton Port Director, Nick Ridehalgh, said:
“We understand how important the Royal Pier site is to the future development of the City`s waterfront. Given this, we welcome the completion of the development agreement.”
