Brunel’s SS Great Britain is a ship, but not, it's so much more than that and the team behind it are making it known to Bristolians that it's not just a tourist attraction. Brunel's SS Great Britain recently launched afternoon taster tickets for Bristolians, to give them a flavour of all they have to offer for half the price of a usual visitor ticket.
The afternoon taster tickets will be available until January, and visitors can also upgrade their afternoon tickets to a yearly ticket for the price difference so they can keep coming back - including for the Victorian Christmas weekends.
I snapped up one of the taster tickets and spent a few hours on the ship, underneath the ship and on top of the ship, although truthfully I could have spent all day there and still not have seen everything! It is huge and wow, she has had an interesting life.
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When launched in 1843, Great Britain was by far the largest vessel afloat. But her protracted construction time of six years (1839–1845) and high cost had left her owners in a difficult financial position, and they were forced out of business in 1846, having spent all their remaining funds refloating her after she ran aground at Dundrum Bay in County Down near Newcastle in what is now Northern Ireland, after a navigation error.
I've lived in Bristol for almost three years and I'm disappointed that I had never visited the SS Great Britain until this weekend, what a fantastic ship. As the world’s first luxury ocean liner, she could carry up to 360 passengers and 130 crew to New York on each voyage. From 1852, Australia was her next big destination where she carried up to 700 passengers in a mixture of first, second and steerage classes, including the first All England cricket team.
Three years later, she was retired to the Falkland Islands, where she was used as a warehouse, quarantine ship and coal hulk until she was scuttled in 1937, 98 years after being laid down. In 1970, after Great Britain had been abandoned for 33 years, Sir Jack Arnold Hayward, OBE (1923–2015) paid for the vessel to be raised and repaired enough to be towed north through the Atlantic back to the United Kingdom, and returned to the Bristol dry dock where she had been built 127 years earlier.
She now proudly sits in that same dock in Bristol having become the city’s top-rated visitor attraction (TripAdvisor 2019-20). Since her homecoming in 1970, SS Great Britain has grown from a beached wreck to an award-winning attraction spanning an immersive dry dock, a historic dockyard, two interactive museums and the SS Great Britain herself.
The decor and design inside the ship is impeccable, the attention to detail is crazy. As you walk around and explore the different rooms and cabins you are greeted with sounds of babies crying on board, food cooking in the kitchen, realistic wax figures of people that truly look good enough to be in Madame Tussauds and the creativity doesn't end there!
Underneath the ship, you're able to see just how this big lady got going, with a chance to steer the ship virtually which is great fun for kids no doubt and adults - I had to have a go too of course. As you're walking through the tour you have the chance to pick up a passenger card and decide which passenger you want to be, this was a really interesting and exciting way to see what type of passengers were on board back in the day.
They have really tried to create an experience that takes you back to the times of the SS Great Britain - they've even added smells into each area of the ship. Yes, there were fake horses on board in one section and manure with the smell to occupy it. It was very... authentic!
Horse manure aside, if you want to have a laugh and really feel part of the times then you can even try on an old bonnet, top hat, dress or waistcoat in one of the ships many rooms. I tried on one of the top hats but I think I look more like a magician truthfully! Thankfully, the hat didn't come with a rabbit.
I would absolutely recommend you visit the SS Great Britain if you haven't already. Make sure you leave enough time to look around everywhere, there is so much information and fun little activities to do like stamp cards where you can stamp when you've visited each section.
It's lots of fun for children as well as adults and remember the afternoon taster tickets are available until January.
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