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Port Lockroy Restoration
 

Under the terms of the Antarctic Treaty, Britain has declared four abandoned bases on the Antarctic Peninsula, as Historic Monuments. These are Port Lockroy, Wordie House, Horseshoe Island and Stonington Island. Of these, Wordie House, Horseshoe Island and Stonington Island are in sound structural order and are kept in that condition. Port Lockroy, situated on Goudier Island has been fully restored to its 1962 condition when it was closed. See a map of the Antarctic Peninsula.

History

During the Second World War, the British Government dispatched a secret mission, code-named Operation Tabarin. Several small bases were established on the Antarctic Peninsula to report on enemy activities and provide weather reports. ‘Base A’, Port Lockroy, was built on Goudier Island in February 1944. The eight man wintering team was led by Lt. Commander James Marr, who, as a young Boy Scout, first visited Antarctica, under the leadership of Sir Ernest Shackleton.
 

Its main base building, Bransfield House, was the first permanent British government building on the Peninsula and much modified over the years. A boathouse was built in 1956 and a generator building erected in 1958. The base's research activities included surveying, geology, meteorology, botany and ionospherics, the latter particularly important during the International Geophysical Year (IGY) of 1957-58. But when BAS re-located its science to other sites on the Antarctic Peninsula, the base closed in January 1962 and subsequently fell into disrepair.

Pre-restoration

Because a good, sheltered anchorage exists off Goudier Island, Port Lockroy became increasingly visited as the seaborne Antarctic tourist industry developed from about the mid-1980s. The old base became derelict with time but had to be cleaned up in accordance with the Antarctic Treaty. A natural correlation existed between the desire of the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust to further its educational role and for the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) to clean up the site. Following a conservation survey in 1994, Port Lockroy was recognised for its historical importance and designated as Historic Site and Monument No. 61 under the Antarctic Treaty.

In 1996, with financial assistance from the British Antarctic Territory Government and advice from the Trust, the British Antarctic Survey restored the base to its 1962 condition when it had closed. It was the first Historic Monument on the Peninsula to be given such treatment. Since then the ‘living museum’ has opened to visitors during the Antarctic summer and for the first ten years was operated by the British Antarctic Survey.

The staff act as wardens and their primary task is to support the visitors. They operate a gift shop and post office. The covers with franked Antarctic stamps are prized worldwide. Proceeds from this operation help fund the upkeep of the base.

Accommodation

Since the base was restored in 1996, the staff have continued to live on the base.  But unlike in the 1950s when the base had three working generators and an Esse stove, they no longer have any of this.  Living in the historic site is far from ideal for a number of reasons.  This the Trust is carrying out a consultation exercise in order to move forward on this issue.  You can download the consultation document here.