A little pang of sadness today as I led my Titanic Walking Tour group around the sights of the TQ…  y’see Susan and I are about to take off in Harvey the Campervan for a couple of weeks for our summer break, which means no more Titanic Walking Tours for the next wee while.  And, saddo that I am, I’m going to miss them!

Time then to deluge you with some more photos – not of gleaming new bits of the Titanic Quarter this time, but the lovely old crumbly bits we get to explore on the Titanic Walking Tours.  If any of you reading this blog haven’t been down to the TQ for a walking tour yet, shame on you!! – and hopefully these pics will whet your appetite…

First up, a few pictures of some of the highlights of the tour – the Drawing Rooms and the Thompson Dry Dock:

There have been rainy days… big tour groups… small groups… locals and a huge variety of visitors… and days when the storm clouds threatened in the distance – but never actually broke!

This lovely old rusty Caisson gate at the back of the Thompson Dock is a pretty amazing piece of history: built at the same time as Titanic and Olympic, from the same hand-rivetted sheet metal, it’s been holding back the sea for the last hundred years, and only just recently started to let some water in as it approached its 100th birthday.  Not bad going…

(There are some really exciting plans to take the pressure off the gate by building a new one beyond it – which would allow visitors right down to the bottom of the dock for the first time in many years.  Can’t wait!)

Some of the personal history that emerges during tours is amazing.  The gents on the left were Australian visitors on a Walking Tour last weekend; they couldn’t believe their eyes when the tour entered the Pump House at the Dry Dock and they saw the 3 massive Victorian pumps down in the pump well.  If you look closely at the pic on the right, you’ll see that the pumps are stamped by the manufacturer, Gwynnes – it turned out that these guys were Gwynnes themselves, and knew that their great-grandfather had been a manufacturer of marine pumps before the family had emigrated to Australia.  They were able to confirm that the pumps were absolutely the original 1911 fittings, as the company had ceased trading soon afterwards – and were beyond delighted that some Gwynnes pumps still exist somewhere in the world!

A few more beauty shots around the Pump House…

So as you can maybe tell, I’ve been loving every moment of these Walking Tours.  I’m Chris Bennett, and I’m a Titanorak.  The rich, powerful story of this old ship has completely sucked me in; the excitement and passion I felt for the new TQ development at the start of my role as Chaplain to the Titanic Quarter is now completely matched by my love for the history and heritage of the area.  I think I sense God’s hand in both of them.  There’s something very profound about a city rediscovering its past, acknowledging the shoulders we stand on.  And to be able to do so while being surrounded by bright hope for tomorrow…wow.