A CORONATION CELEBRATION ON BRUNEL’S SS GREAT BRITAIN

Toast His Majesty with a royal afternoon tea experience on board the ship

Enjoy high tea like a royal, with a delicious selection of savouries and desserts served on the world’s first great ocean liner.

Step back in time and experience the glamour of the SS Great Britain’s stunning First Class Dining Saloon.

Mark a historic weekend by enjoying afternoon tea on board a Great British institution.

On Sunday 7 May, Brunel’s SS Great Britain will celebrate the coronation of King Charles III with a right-royal afternoon tea experience.

Visitors can step on board the ship and tuck into a delicious selection of treats in the ship’s luxurious First Class Dining Saloon. Guests can choose either a 1pm or a 3pm sitting, and will be able to indulge in finger sandwiches, mini savouries, scrumptious scones, and elegant macaroons.

The ship’s First Class Dining Saloon would have hosted first-class passengers during voyages, and has been lovingly restored by the SS Great Britain Trust’s Interpretation team.

Known as the world’s first great ocean liner, SS Great Britain now rests in the very dock where Brunel built her – the Great Western Dockyard in Bristol’s Floating Harbour.

The SS Great Britain’s afternoon tea experience will run on selected Sundays across the summer. In addition to the Coronation weekend, guests can experience tea in the most opulent of settings on the following dates:

June 25th

July 23rd

August 20th

September 24th

The Coronation afternoon tea experience costs £39.95 per adult (£25 per child) and includes full access to the ship, the historic dockyard, dry dock and museums – from midday until close.

The ship’s royal connections

Over the years, the ship has played host to a series of royal visitors, including Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II who stepped aboard on 26 July 1985 to explore the ship and open the museum’s maritime heritage centre.

Her consort, HRH Prince Philip also had a special connection with the SS Great Britain, having been on deck as Brunel’s great ship returned to Bristol in 1970. HRH Prince Philip became the SS Great Britain Trust’s first patron, a position now taken on by HRH The Princess Royal.

The SS Great Britain’s links with royalty began in 1843 when Prince Albert, the consort of Queen Victoria, was invited to attend its launch in Bristol. Queen Victoria also visited the ship on 22 April 1845, during the SS Great Britain’s five-month stay on the Thames for her final fitting out. Brunel himself showed the Queen and Prince Albert a model of the engines and screw propeller.

The visit definitely left an impression on Queen Victoria, who wrote in her journal later that day; ‘All the fittings & decorations are very fine, & everything made as comfortable as possible, but I should not much care to go to sea, with such a quantity of passengers, or in such a long, narrow ship.’

Book your experience today at www. ssgreatbritain.org/afternoontea.co.uk

Key facts about Brunel’s SS Great Britain

Brunel’s SS Great Britain is the top-rated visitor attraction in Bristol and top 10 museum in the UK (TripAdvisor 2022). The museum was awarded ‘Europe’s most welcoming museum’ in the European Museum of the Year Awards (2019).

The SS Great Britain now rests in the very dock where Brunel built her – the Great Western Dockyard in Bristol’s Floating Harbour.

Known as ‘the world’s first great ocean liner’, the ship sailed around the world 32 times, travelling more than 1,000,000 miles at sea.

Voted the second Greatest Briton of all time, (after Winston Churchill), Isambard Kingdom Brunel was one of the 19th century engineering heroes.

At the SS Great Britain’s launch in 1843 she was by far the largest ship in the world; and the first ever to combine a metal hull and screw propulsion.