Context 153 - March 2018

36 C O N T E X T 1 5 3 : M A R C H 2 0 1 8 There have been a few changes to the building over the years. A row of shops along the main concourse has been swept away and replaced by Costa andWH Smith. The left-luggage office which occupied the whole of one of the legs has become a tourist information bureau, and the large waiting hall has been reduced in size to provide a booking office and check-in area for the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company. The first floor, which at one time housed the kitchen for the Crow’s Nest Restaurant, the offices of the Isle of Man Harbour Board and a large observation area, is now entirely office accommodation. The Crow’s Nest was given over to Harbour Control many years ago and the floor beneath that which was originally recessed to emphasise the overhang of the Crow’s Nest was filled in and made flush in 1979. Externally roll-on, roll-off facilities and marshalling areas have been created along with a high-level link between the two piers. In 2016 the island embarked on aYear of Architecture, sponsored by Manx National Heritage, CultureVannin and SoFA, the local architects group. One aim was to raise the profile of the island architecture, including draw- ing attention to some 20th-century buildings worthy of registration (equivalent to UK listing).The SeaTerminal quickly became an icon. Two years previously, when a master plan for Douglas had proposed sweeping the present SeaTerminal away in favour of a new deep-water dock suitable for cruise ships, many of us had rallied in support of this much-loved building (known by many as the Lemon Squeezer, from the serrated roof edge to the Crow’s Nest coupled with the ‘spire’ rising out of it). The Isle of Architecture ran a blog ‘Why I love this building’. The post by Janet Lees summarises the importance of this building. ‘Every summer throughout the 70s, me and my sisters would compete to be first to spot the spike of the SeaTerminal building as we chugged Building the roof with lightweight concrete blocks The Sea Terminal with its spire The blue precast concrete panels were made locally. An elevation of an early version of the design