spyinthesky

Um Interesting about berths 14-16 I have never heard about bananas being imported in any quantity before at this location. Do you have any source pl? In my youth I used to know the Manager of the Elders & Fyffes operation at 25 berth and am sure he said that bananas did not come into the Uk in any volume until after WW2 The banana trade at 101 berth was Geest which came from Barry in the 1990's and the building was transformed into the City cruise terminal when geest went down to Pompey

In reply to Mr Ho's posting re Saints financial position. First of all I am glowing with pride that with a relatively modest outlay £1.8m for Fox and £750k for Cork we are currently well placed ahead of a rival club who appears to have spent more. Secondly we reportedly have £12-£14m in the bin, from player sales, ready to be invested in squad improvement. Quite apart from the asset value of St Mary's, the Training ground (one of the best in the country) and Jacksons Farm, I would humbly suggest our squad is probably worth more in todays transfer market than our friends down the road although, of course, this is all relative to contract terms and the like

Did well for us but a few suggested shelling out a sizeable sum to buy him Others thought he was limited to Div 1 See he is now on loan to Colchester.Probably his level Also notice that Andrew Davies, a success during his time here, is now plying his trade with Bradford City whilst David Mcgoldrick was sub for Sheff Weds last week on loan from Forest. Meanwhile our chum Anthony Pulis seems a permanent fixture on the bench at Aldershot

Um - all this is good stuff apart from the fruit handling reference Banana handling did not come to Soton until the 1950's and then used a purpose built facility at Berths 25 for inward Elders & Fyffes bananas (still within the Port boundary by the Windblade operation)) and 26/7 for export goods and passengers to the West Indies (now part of the NERC University development) Banana Wharf is not where bananas were handled!! The P&O Line started operations from what is now Ocean village in 1842 (note the company will celebrate the 170th anniversary of this next July by having all 7 of their cruise ships in port) P&O transported 90,000 men and approx 18,000 horses to the Crimea in 1854 The forerunner of the Union Castle Line also used these berths The Inner Dock, filled in during the mid 60's to provide marshalling space for the new Ferry services to France, was bounded by large warehouses, one of which was for grain and others for bonded goods. Most were lost during the war or subsequently demolished, but one remains adjacent to the cinema There also used to be an animal lairage down where Chiquitos is now and, in the early days, cattle and shhep were driven directly down the High Street to the lairage to be transferred aboard ship or accommodated overnight in pens below Central Bridge (now a small industrial estate and flats) which was also an abattoir Soton was the major embarkation port for troops going out to the Crimea plus WW1 & 2 Apart from the plaque on what was the Cross Channel Booking Office (near Tesco Express) there is another by Dock gate 4 in recognition of the 'Old Contemptibles' A great reference book for all this is 'A Pictorial History of Soton Docks' by Bert Moody a very knowlegable local historian

It was the original part of the (Old or Eastern)Docks built from the 1840's It was home for a number of trades, including the Railway Ferries to the Channel isles and France and then was taken over by the Thoresen & P&O Ferries to Le havre & Cherbourg before they left for Portsmouth in the 1970's. After that, as commercial shipping became bigger, the area was sold off by the port to create Ocean Village.

minime Have seen your proposals and rate them as really good However it is the funding that's the problem It is easy to blame the Council (been there myself) but they do struggle to get the finance Maybe selling off some of the Art collection is a decent option

I think the idea of a tower is great. However pompey got theirs underwritten by Lottery Grants and an ongoing expensense on local ratepayers revenue. In fact there was a big debate on this at the time as not all Pompey residents wanted their money spent this way. I think the actual revenue from visitors is way below projections but, of course, there are knock on effects to local businesses from visitors who just want to visit and look. If you consider two examples of commercial towers that I know of in the UK ie the Post Office (now BT Tower) and the one in Liverpool, both had revolving restaurants and both are now used for other purposes so perhaps the business model is not right over here or the Berlin Tower is subsidised in some way. I agree with Kraken ,much as I like living here, there is no real architecture of merit. The Council has grand plans (I've seen them) but it costs money and, without massive grant aid available to cities north of the M4, any project has to be commercially funded. Not easy when the banks are pursuing a tight fiscal policy Many people complain about Ikea but the council would no doubt consider the benefits of siting the store in the City centre as i) it brings in a fair proportion of people from outside the city to spend money in retail outlets and ii) it provides business rate income to the city to the benefit of residents (the annoying thing here is all Business rate income goes up to London for Govt redistribution back to Local Authorities. The so called 'rich south' gets less than than they contribute. The 'poor north' gets more I think, for the moment at least, in comparison to the likes of Liverpool, Newcastle, Birmingham etc we have to put up with a better climate, more parks and (Hopefully) a relatively successful football team whilst they may enjoy more iconic buildings

You are right about the funding. The sums allocated to SEEDA under the European Economic Development Fund between 2000 and 2006 was approx 4% of the total allocated to Merseyside and the North West If you look at the NWDA's funding programme you will be amazed at some of the crazy schemes they funded. Worst of all they didnt seem to have any proper check regarding the benefit of the funding SEEDA, like all the Regional Development Agency Quango's, was a bureaucratic nonsense and it is a good thing they have all been wound up

Kriss I am afraid it is nothing to do with foresight it is all to do with the Govts perception of the 'Rich' South versus the 'Poor' North The amount of funding given to SEEDA for distribution in the South East was peanuts compared to that given to Merseyside and other areas in the north including South Yorkshire Also Merseyside benefited from Objective One funding from the EC which pumped billions of £ into their economy, most of which was spent regenerating the city centre. Even now they are getting more grant aid towards the biggest 'Titantic' event in the Uk next April. This will consist of a big open theatre event costing £2m most of which will be paid for by grants from the European Economic Development Fund and the Arts Council Southampton has far more claim to the 'Titanic' disater than most but I can imagine the response from the Grant Agencies if the Council had the temerity to ask for any money to honour the hundreds of local people who perished. The final word would be ...OFF!!

Kriss, it is easy to criticise Soton Council but if someone gave you, me or most reasonable posters on here a multi billion pound war chest of free money to be spent on improving Soton I suspect we all would have done a pretty reasonable job of improving the city. Look at how much EC and UK Govt money Liverpool has received in recent years compared to diddly squat down here and you may be able to understand the disparity

Am I right to presume VAT will be deducted from the £2.00 Adults ticket So est 4,328 x say 3,328 adults x £2.00 less 20% = £5,319 est 1,000 kids x free How much for stewards, electricity, police, St Johns, other costs etc? Will the Players Union under that nice Gordon Taylor demand appearance money? The gate receipts were probably less that at a Havant & Waterlooville game!!

Had the opportunity to sail along the river Itchen today and viewed St Mary's from the water. An interesting siteline. It gives even more credance to the possibility of gentryfying the water frontage by, at some time in the future, relocating the aggregate wharves, developing the gasometer site (when it becomes redundant) and, perhaps, also expanding into the adjacent industrial estate to create a more appropriate sporting/leisure complex (if this is econmoically viable). There have been discussions about this in the past but just wonder how much interest NC and the Liebherr family have in this possible future opportunity?

I wonder how many will take up the opportunity to donate..'to a worthy cause' ...as suggested on the Pompey website page?

But £3b is supposedly shared amongst the Liebherr family, not directly attributable to Marcus's side

Presume this is the house Benali initially rented out to Nicola Cortese and may be subject to a legal case Understand NC bought finally bought a place in Chilworth for about the same price Wasnt Frankie Benali involved in a building firm with his Father in Law which went tits up?

You wonder what sort of package must have been on offer to tempt him away from a Champions league club Wonder if there will be any concerts at St Marys in the summer?

Anyone know the final number of saints tickets sold?

Slightly off topic but a mate who's son is studying as a Town Planner tells me that of all the UK cities bombed in the war, Pompey had the most incidents of Looting from shops, warehouses and private residences as recorded by the police and the Mass Observation Society. Now you might understand how bombing may make you do things you wouldn't normally do but then take into account that,post war,some of their offspring had the nerve to make up a silly story about a non existent Dock Strike to cover up the fall from grace of their football club post 1960!!

Questions re friendly 1. Who pays the opponents expenses. Club or owners? 2. What happens to the few who have already paid £10 for a ticket? 3. Do the players get appearance money? 4. Does 20% Vat have to be taken out of the ticket price for a 'charity' game 5. Will Hadji Diouf fit in well at Pompey when he arrives? (Nice chap!!!)

Not that I am bothered one way or the other, rather need to test out my powers of observation, but have the two dog mascots been sent to the kennels this season?

Good post i think we all should be reminded how journalism works and how things can be taken out of context and/or manipulated to suit a particular agenda

The Ex Saints have gone off in a different direction in recent years. A lot of the original stalwarts (mainly locally based players such as Stuart Williams, Bob Mc Carthy, Cliff Huxford, Denny Pring, Roger Fry, micky Judd etc etc) have long since stopped their involvement and the mantle has been taken up by a more recent group financed by a keen and fairly wealthy Saints fan who pays for the Ex Saints Association Box at St Marys and helps bankroll the Ex Saints team I understand Roy Beazley (who has not enjoyed the best of health in recent years, nor has his wife) has not been directly involved for a few years now The football club and the Ex Saints have enjoyed a patchy relationship over the past 30-40 years but it would be great if any differences could be forgotten and both organisations worked together for the benefit of the club which, after all, is what the fans want

I have some first hand stories relating to Cortese. Unfortunately non of them are positive, which is a shame. That said he is in charge of the football club I support, a club which is currently giving me more pleasure than in many a year. Provided he doesn't do anything to prejudice the success and viability of the club then certain of his actions may disappoint me but I can live with this.