New images show how the massive new shipbuilding facility in Glasgow is expected to look.
The images come from planning application documentation pertaining to the infill of the Govan Wet Basin in Glasgow.
The proposed developments, as readers will know, include the creation of a quay wall, the erection of a shipbuilding assembly hall, and other associated works.
The planning document archive includes a variety of files available for viewing and download. Among them are samples and drawings published in May and June of 2023. Notably, there are several drawings showing lighting renders. The renders show the facility from various locations.
For comparison, here’s how the site looks today.
Glasgow skyline will be dramatically changed, and shipbuilding reputation will be reasserted
I previously spoke to Paul Sweeney, Glasgow Labour Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP), and former BAE shipyard employee, who told me that the revised plan would improve the city’s shipbuilding capability. He said:
“Constructing ships outdoors in Glasgow brings with it major productivity drawbacks, most obviously due to adverse weather, so BAE’s ambitious plan to construct a fully indoor ship assembly hall over the wet basin at Govan shipyard heralds a dramatic improvement for shipbuilding infrastructure in the city. After the disappointing cancellation of the planned ‘frigate factory’ at Scotstoun shipyard in 2015, this revised proposal for a ship assembly hall at Govan is very welcome indeed.”
Sweeney also told me that the size of the facility is expected to be very impressive and will dominate the Glasgow Skyline.
Sweeney said, “This new hall will probably become the largest building by enclosed volume in Glasgow, if not Scotland, and will make a dramatic impact on the Clydeside skyline. I hope that the competitive advantages it brings will help to reassert Glasgow’s global reputation for having shipbuilding capabilities that are of the highest quality”.
For more background on the project, head here.
Projected timeline for completion? 2025? Subject to cancellation (restructuring) by next government (including remaining T-26 order)? Or are the contracts binding, once awarded? 🤔
Hopefully binding. Really the long lead items are already being bought and type 23 are not going to last much longer.
I don’t think the next government will cancel anything on order. The defence budget needs to increase or a scale back of what’s expected of forces is needed.
🤞🤞
yes Labour is normally supportive of ‘heavy industry’ because of its training and jobs.
The T26 would have been all built by now if it wasnt for the Cameron-Clegg-Osborne 2010 cancelling of the existing new frigate development started in 2008. It was resurrected in 2015 just before the election but was at snails pace since.
Labour(spend,spend,spend have nothing to do with it why were no options like this mooted when they were last in charge of the purse strings? The need for a initiative like this has been clear for decades.
They did .
Remember the T45 build was under way 2003 (Daring)-2007 (Duncan)
the T23 replacement in development to start build once Duncan was fitted out (2012),
the Astutes were building ( Artful, Ambush, Audacious all under construction),
plus first carrier laid down Jul 2009.
Clearly they had a mostly coherent build program, the Tories are a cut cut and cut some more as the 2010 massive cut wasnt enough and the keep doing it *after* each election since.
Your comment is disingenuous because as we know there was no money left when the coalition took over.
UK as a whole needs to get back into metal bashing and I think this is slowly taking place. I hope the next 10 years see the Navy grow as is needed and skilled employment opportunities expand.
‘No money’ was just political horse*&^
They had a deliberate austerity first to ‘starve’ the government beast as some sort of neo Thatcher ideology to shrink government.
But you claimed the previous government had no shipbuilding strategy – which I refuted by counting the hulls under construction before 2010- so it was back to the old no money left chestnut .
Yet here we are now with multiple frigate hulls under construction , the same again for missile subs- but 7-8 wasted years after 2010
I hope it takes less time to build the complex than it for them to actually build a ship!
The Type 45 replacement will need to follow the Type 26 and its highly likely that will be built in this hall.
If the funds to build the class are still available, I’d still go for a improved batch 2 T45
Andy at present there are no funds and that will stay the same till inflation gets nearer to 2%. It’s not a lack of will or need it’s down to the amount of money we are having to spend on interest payments for the National debt. Till that comes down we are effectively mmm broke 😔
🤞
An exciting render for some folks, to be sure, but just a giant tin shed to the rest of us! 😉
Ahh I know the real reason they are building this. It’s to house the SNP camper van fleet and the prime minister’s massive bank balance😂😂😂
Good work George. It’s good to keep the National Shipbuilding front and centre in the news. Boris Johnson was no saint but he was right when he observed that a healthy Royal Navy = a healthy UK – economy, jobs, the Union, political influence….supporting this by committing to increasing the escort numbers to 24. When he spoke the words ‘Type 32’ he was saying there’s more to come after T31.
T32 won’t happen all the money will go to the T83 project and then they’ll spend two years arguing over what colour it will be painted.
Let’s get with the program!
Echo, Enterprise plus 3 River batch 1 sold off = justification and crews for 5 new frigates. 🙂
I’d bet those crews have already been redeployed to fill shortfalls elsewhere. The 2 new RFA Proteus and Stirling Castle need a RN complement of 100+ as well as their RFA crew.
Maybe, I don’t know. Just trying to look on the bright side… 🙂
How dare you! Only dull sides allowed to be looked at here. The glass is half empty permanently 😂😂😂😂
Consider myself duly reprimanded just in time for the wet bank holiday weekend 😂
It will Interesting to see if they will have this ready before the the two halfs of HMS Belfast are rolled out.
Is the reference to a new quay wall that which is being constructed across the old wet basin or a new quay wall along the riverside where the old slipways are?
Impressive but 25 years late
So, when this ‘shed’ is built, what are the plans for ship launch? Constructed within the hall as ‘a oner’ (not in 2 parts as is at present) and then wheeled straight ahead onto a barge or will there be some other form of maneuvering infront of the hall?
Yes joined in the new Shed rather than outside, then rolled straight onto the Barge I’d say.
An earlier article specifically stated that they are building a “new dry-dock/build hall” . . . “The new dry-dock/build hall would allow ships to be built indoors, protecting them against the elements and would form part of an effort to modernise the yard to make it more attractive to future orders”. This implies that once the ships are built and ready to put to sea, they can/will open the gates, flood the dry-dock, raise/float the ship(s), which will then float into the river?! However, in all the artistic impressions of the completed project, it shows a permanent, fixed, concrete “apron”… Read more »
BAE seem to continuing to make a big improvement push at Barrow, in addition to the new centralised office/crew accommodation building, and the new equipment assembly hall, both of which have now received permission, they have also submitted four separate applications for temporary two storey modular welfare facilities around the shipyard containing canteens and toilets (possibly to keep unions happy) but the 5th application is for a 1901m2 modular office is much larger and the ‘business support’ office is predominantly open plan office with a generous number of conference rooms and acoustic booths, possibly to serve while the new office… Read more »
George great update, but could you kindly post a link to the planning dept archive please. I spent an hour trawling round in Glasgow City Planning and it’s not a very friendly site.
Do you think the Scottish Tories will ever get any thanks for effectively relaunching ship building in Scotland? Will ship building in NI get in on the act? Will Governments of any colour back up the National Ship Building Plan with continuous orders and an increased Defence budget?
Does anyone know that the existing build shed will be pulled down?
I don’t think that would make sense, while they have a backlog of 4 ships to start work on. The extra shed will help increase production capacity, assuming they can recruit some extra staff too.
The new artist impressions, shows a large gap between the new build hall and the old sheds, as if a part of the old shed has been removed, in contrast to the plan layout of only a small gap.
An earlier article specifically stated that they are building a “new dry-dock/build hall” . . . “The new dry-dock/build hall would allow ships to be built indoors, protecting them against the elements and would form part of an effort to modernise the yard to make it more attractive to future orders”. This implies that once the ships are built and ready to put to sea, they can/will open the gates, flood the dry-dock, raise/float the ship(s), which will then float into the river?! However, in all the artistic impressions of the completed project, it shows a permanent, fixed, concrete “apron”… Read more »