Serves you right for charging £4.30 for a cappuccino.

February 16, 2015 9:47 AM

HMS Belfast is a museum ship, originally a Royal Navy light cruiser, permanently moored in London on the River Thames and operated by the Imperial War Museum. You can take a virtual tour of the ship here. HMS Belfast served throughout the Second World War and on into Korea, but these days it's main guns are permanently aimed at Scratchwood Motorway Services
posted by Just this guy, y'know (14 comments total)

My wife and I took the in-person tour when we went to London 12 years ago, and it was fun if you like that sort of thing (which I do). As I recall, you can sit in the machine gunner stations and move those guns anywhere you like. We were both a bit creeped out by the uncanny-valley-caliber mannequins in the re-enactment dioramas. Also -- a real Enigma machine!
posted by briank at 9:55 AM on February 16, 2015

I once tried to take a nap in the parking lot of the Scratchwood Motorway Services after a long, weary drive back from Scotland. Unfortunately, it was filled with several large groups of hooligans of rival teams, both of which happened to stop there at the same time and had what seemed like a half and hour of drunken yelling and singing match at each other.

Any other time, I would have thought it an amusing scene. However, right then I was in desperate need of sleep and had I known there was even the most infinitesimal chance of calling in artillery strike, at that moment I probably would have at least made a call to the Royal Navy and made a polite request.
posted by chambers at 10:11 AM on February 16, 2015 [7 favorites]

Some might opine that if we had unleashed motorway services catering on the foe that WW2 would have been over within the week
posted by fallingbadgers at 10:56 AM on February 16, 2015

My dad took me round the Belfast when I was under ten. Had my first ever anxiety attack below deck in the James-Bond-movie-shootout style of engine room it has, and had to be removed for ice cream.
posted by colie at 11:17 AM on February 16, 2015

> Some might opine that if we had unleashed motorway services catering on the foe that WW2 would have been over within the week

I understand that they had top men working on the idea.
posted by benito.strauss at 11:20 AM on February 16, 2015 [2 favorites]

Gun laying is a lot harder then it appears, I'll bet a few ranging shots would be necessary to actually hit Scratchwood Motorway Services. Their neighbors probably wouldn't appreciate it.
posted by Confess, Fletch at 11:27 AM on February 16, 2015 [1 favorite]

I remember the shock when at the very bottom of the ship, in the ammunition magazine under the 'A' turret protected by 4.5 inches of steel, deep under the surface of Thames, my friend's cell phone rang.
posted by hat_eater at 12:38 PM on February 16, 2015 [2 favorites]

A company I once worked at had their annual company retreat (i.e., a day of presentations about sales figures followed by drinking) aboard HMS Belfast. I suspect a lot of their income stream is hiring out their surplus space as a mildly quirky convention room.
posted by acb at 1:22 PM on February 16, 2015 [1 favorite]

They have the best fudge!
posted by Omnomnom at 2:50 PM on February 16, 2015

She looks to be in fine shape. We tied up outboard the Belfast when my US Navy ship did a port visit to London back in the mid 70s.
posted by CincyBlues at 4:04 PM on February 16, 2015

It is one of the more well presented and interesting London things to do. I like a museum with more artifacts and less graphic designs. Just try not to think about the imperfectly sealed asbestos wrapping on the many steam pipes as you walk along the corridors.
posted by Bee'sWing at 4:32 PM on February 16, 2015 [1 favorite]

Metafilter: like a museum with more artifacts and less graphic designs.
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 5:02 PM on February 16, 2015 [1 favorite]

Metafilter: Just try not to think about the imperfectly sealed asbestos wrapping on the many steam pipes as you walk along the corridors.
posted by InsertNiftyNameHere at 8:44 PM on February 16, 2015

hat_eater: I remember the shock when at the very bottom of the ship, in the ammunition magazine under the 'A' turret protected by 4.5 inches of steel, deep under the surface of Thames, my friend's cell phone rang.

This happened to me three years ago, inside the battleship Massachusetts at Battleship Cove. 'Big Mamie' has armor plating a foot thick, so to hear the tinny ringing of my phone below decks was really disorienting.
posted by wenestvedt at 6:04 AM on February 17, 2015