Opening in 2012 at a total cost of £15m, the new visitor attraction will celebrate Southampton's 2,000-year history as a global maritime port. It will be housed in the city's Grade II Old Magistrates Court and completed in April 2012, in time to commemorate the centenary of the Titanic leaving Southampton. It is anticipated that over 120,000 visitors each year will visit the attraction and immerse themselves in the story of the city and its most famous ship.
Sea City will be home to three galleries, two permanent and one temporary, with Sysco responsible for the design, engineering and installation of all the audio visual and interactive elements. The first permanent gallery, Gateway To The World, will look at the city's role in the global context of emigration and immigration. In the second, Southampton's Titanic Story, previously untold tales about the 549 people from the city who lost their lives in 1912 will be recounted. There is also a temporary space, in which the first of a projected series of exhibitions - Disaster Becomes Romance - looks at the Titanic disaster from different angles.
(Jim Evans)
