Where in the world ?

[exlondoner]

This is the Anchor Line HQ in Glasgow. As the company was part of Cunard for many years, does it count?

 

 

[bluemarble]

2 hours ago, exlondoner said:

 

Last night, when I was looking for books with pictures of Cunard buildings, I found a little book called Cunardia, bought on board, which had a rather imprescise map of areas the ships were named after. This led me to wonder if Trieste was in Carinthia?

 

I know what you mean by imprecise maps. From what I can tell, Carinthia would appear to have been mostly in modern-day Austria. A couple maps I'm seeing of the Austria-Hungarian Empire appear to place Trieste within Küstenland (Austrian Littoral). One or two others maps show Trieste in or bordering Krain (Carniola). None of this should be considered definitive though.

[bluemarble]

5 hours ago, exlondoner said:

So, are we counting Carnival House in Soton? It is their current U.K. HQ.

 

When it comes to Southampton, I'm going to suggest South Western House as well. Here's a link to an image from the BBC showing a Cunard sign on that building.

 

https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/media/images/82680000/jpg/_82680414_cunard_hotel.jpg

 

The BBC article containing this photo is titled "Cunard 175th anniversary exhibition in Southampton" and states "Cunard moved its headquarters from Liverpool to Southampton in 1965. More than 400 staff worked at the offices in the former South Western Hotel."

[exlondoner]

17 minutes ago, bluemarble said:

 

When it comes to Southampton, I'm going to suggest South Western House as well. Here's a link to an image from the BBC showing a Cunard sign on that building.

 

https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/media/images/82680000/jpg/_82680414_cunard_hotel.jpg

 

The BBC article containing this photo is titled "Cunard 175th anniversary exhibition in Southampton" and states "Cunard moved its headquarters from Liverpool to Southampton in 1965. More than 400 staff worked at the offices in the former South Western Hotel."

 

Yes, I wondered about that too.

[sfred]

10 hours ago, exlondoner said:

So, are we counting Carnival House in Soton? It is their current U.K. HQ.

 

Southampton should definitely be on our list of cities with Cunard buildings.  That was the last city that I originally had in mind at the start of the challenge.  There are several buildings.

 

First, as @exlondonersuggested, is the current Cunard headquarters in the Carnival building at 100 Harbour Parade.

 

 

Second, there are the adjacent Cunard Maritime House (at right in the below photo), and White Star Line Canute Chambers (at left), on Canute Road.  Maritime House was the Southampton office of Cunard until just after WW2.  Canute Chambers housed the White Star Line's administrative and ticketing functions. The building was constructed in 1893, originally for the American Line. WSL took over the building in 1907 when they switched the British base for transatlantic service from Liverpool to Southampton. Canute Chambers is still used as offices, but not by a shipping line.

 

 

Lastly, as @bluemarbleidentified, is South Western House, the heritage listed building at Canute Road and Terminus Terrace.  Opened in 1865, it was originally a hotel serving departing passengers.  , It was converted to offices after WW2 and Cunard moved there from Maritime House.   The building is used now for apartments.  @bluemarble's post contains a link to a photo.

 

[sfred]

7 hours ago, exlondoner said:

This is the Anchor Line HQ in Glasgow. As the company was part of Cunard for many years, does it count?

 

It is a beautiful building in a city (Glasgow) of many excellent buildings, so I think it should definitely count.

[sfred]

While the Cunard building in Liverpool gets most of the attention, Liverpool also contains a White Star Line building, at 30 James Street.  Called Albion House, it was built in 1898 and housed the WSL until 1934 when WSL merged with Cunard. 

 

[exlondoner]

15 minutes ago, sfred said:

While the Cunard building in Liverpool gets most of the attention, Liverpool also contains a White Star Line building, at 30 James Street.  Called Albion House, it was built in 1898 and housed the WSL until 1934 when WSL merged with Cunard. 

 

 

What a strange building: the top and bottom halves don't look as if they belong. Like several of the others we have seen, it seems to have been for sale some time recently.

[sfred]

Nearby to the Cunard 25 Broadway building in New York is the White Star Line building at 11 Broadway.  It is currently a Subway sandwich shop, but there are some good historical photos of crowds gathering there after the Titanic disaster.  ...

 

 

 

 

Also a few doors away is the International Mercantile Marine (IMM) Company building at 1 Broadway.  IMM was the JP Morgan trust which combined several existing shipping lines, including the American Line, Red Star Line, Atlantic Transport Line, White Star Line, Leyland Line, and Dominion Line.  IMM used 1 Broadway as a joint ticketing facility, where passengers could arrange bookings on any of the lines.  Sort of the OneWorld or Star Alliance of its day.

 

The building is currently a Citibank branch, and the Battery Place side of the building has two entrances marked "cabin class" and "first class". 

 

 

[sfred]

3 minutes ago, exlondoner said:

 

What a strange building: the top and bottom halves don't look as if they belong. Like several of the others we have seen, it seems to have been for sale some time recently.

 

Yes, the facade is a mix of white Portland stone, and red brick.   The gables were damaged during the war and rebuilt afterward.  The building is currently a hotel, although the previous owners encountered financial troubles and Legacy Hotels will apparently take over the building.

[sfred]

13 hours ago, exlondoner said:

I cant help feeling that, in view of the number of emigrants from the Med. carried by Cunard and White Star, there should be some offices in somewhere like Trieste or Naples. After all, that is where Carpathia was going when her journey was so famously interrupted. But I haven't found anything.

 

I can't find any Cunard or WSL buildings in Italy either.  But as you suggest, there must have been some sort of physical presence given the volume of immigration from Italy.  Passengers had to be ticketed, and ships administered and provisioned.  Perhaps some admin could be done from Liverpool, Boston, or New York, but there must have been something in Naples or Rome.  I'll keep looking.

 

[Colin_Cameron]

I’ll need to put my thinking cap on. I’ve been in a couple of offices that haven’t been mentioned yet.

 

They used to have a place opposite the Ritz on Piccadilly (London) about 22 or 23 years ago and there was one in Southampton that was in a curved terrace but looking at Google maps I can’t place it.

 

I also came across a building (relatively) recently with the Cunard name that surprised me. But again my memory fails me. Sydney? Melbourne?

[sfred]

11 hours ago, exlondoner said:

Does 555 Fifth Avenue have any remaining signs of its Cunard connection?

 

Doesn't appear so.  As you indicate, Cunard used 555 Fifth Avenue for its US HQ from 1968 (when it left 25 Broadway) until 1995.   I can't see any traces of the Cunard name on Google Street View, but perhaps there is some remaining evidence inside.

[sfred]

For any other enthusiasts, like me, of Cunard 25 Broadway, there are some more great photos of the interior on the QE2story web site.  Here's a link:

 

https://www.theqe2story.com/forum/index.php?topic=8440.0

[sfred]

18 minutes ago, Colin_Cameron said:

I’ll need to put my thinking cap on. I’ve been in a couple of offices that haven’t been mentioned yet.

 

They used to have a place opposite the Ritz on Piccadilly (London) about 22 or 23 years ago and there was one in Southampton that was in a curved terrace but looking at Google maps I can’t place it.

 

I also came across a building (relatively) recently with the Cunard name that surprised me. But again my memory fails me. Sydney? Melbourne?

 

Thanks @Colin_Cameron.  Any further thoughts most welcome.  I came across a few brief references to a Cunard sales office on Pall Mall in London, but couldn't find any hard evidence.  Perhaps it was actually your thought of Piccadilly.

Edited December 16, 2020 by sfred

[sfred]

So here's where we stand on the "Cunard Building" challenge, sorted by city.  Locations added in the past day are in italics. 

 

• Cunard Building, Water Street Liverpool
• Albion House, White Star Line, 30 James Street Liverpool
• Cunard Building, 25 Broadway, New York
• White Star Line, 11 Broadway, New York
• International Mercantile Marine (IMM), 1 Broadway, New York
• Cunard office, 555 Fifth Avenue, New York
• 126 State Street, Boston
• Cunard Centre, Halifax (an honourable mention, as it is not a real Cunard building, but it does have the Cunard name prominently featured)
• Cunard, 15 Regent Street, London
• Cunard, Leadenhall Street, London
• Oceanic House, 1 Cockspur Street, London
• Cunard 20 West Beach, Cobh
• White Star Line 21 Casement Square, Cobh
• 465 Rue Saint-Jean, Montreal Quebec
• Carnival (and Cunard) headquarters, 100 Harbour Parade, Southampton
• Cunard Maritime House, Canute Road, Southampton
• Canute Chambers, White Star Line, Canute Road, Southampton
• South Western House, Canute Road and Terminus Terrace, Southampton
• Anchor Line building, 12 St. Vincent Place, Glasgow

 

My research to find an Italy building has still come up empty.  In the process though, I've found locations in three other cities, one in the UK and two elsewhere in Europe. 

 

Alas, there is nothing even remotely close to being a Cunard Building in my home port of Brisbane.  The best I can offer is a Cunard Street, in the Brisbane suburb of Holland Park.  Street sign shown below.

 

 

 

Edited December 17, 2020 by sfred

[exlondoner]

The Cunard Hungarian American Service actually turned round at Fiume. I can't find anything there, but it's hard to believe there wasn't quite an impressive set of offices.

[Colin_Cameron]

11 hours ago, sfred said:

 

Thanks @Colin_Cameron.  Any further thoughts most welcome.  I came across a few brief references to a Cunard sales office on Pall Mall in London, but couldn't find any hard evidence.  Perhaps it was actually your thought of Piccadilly.

I'd forgotten about 30a Pall Mall, near the RAC Club. No it wasn't that one.

 

There were also Mountbatten House, Grosvenor Square, Southampton and Richmond House, Terminus Terrace Southampton, but again neither is the one I was looking for.

[Colin_Cameron]

The Cunard name is no longer on pier 90 in New York but it's still there on the outer end of pier 94 and the last time we docked at pier 90 (sixteen years ago) it was still on one of the others downriver.

 

And is the arch at the landward end of pier 54 still there with the Cunard and White Star names on it?

[bluemarble]

3 hours ago, Colin_Cameron said:

The Cunard name is no longer on pier 90 in New York but it's still there on the outer end of pier 94 and the last time we docked at pier 90 (sixteen years ago) it was still on one of the others downriver.

 

And is the arch at the landward end of pier 54 still there with the Cunard and White Star names on it?

 

I've passed that arch at pier 54 numerous times while walking the High Line in New York but I don't think I ever realized its significance. Thanks for pointing that out. Here's a link to a page on Wikimedia Commons showing that arch with its faded Cunard and White Star lettering as seen from the High Line.

 

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pier_54_(6217982541).jpg

[sfred]

7 hours ago, Colin_Cameron said:

The Cunard name is no longer on pier 90 in New York but it's still there on the outer end of pier 94 and the last time we docked at pier 90 (sixteen years ago) it was still on one of the others downriver.  And is the arch at the landward end of pier 54 still there with the Cunard and White Star names on it?

3 hours ago, bluemarble said:

I've passed that arch at pier 54 numerous times while walking the High Line in New York but I don't think I ever realized its significance. Thanks for pointing that out. Here's a link to a page on Wikimedia Commons showing that arch with its faded Cunard and White Star lettering as seen from the High Line.

 

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pier_54_(6217982541).jpg

And this is a photo of the pier 54 complex and arches in its heyday.

 

 

The High Line is a great walk, isn't it?

[sfred]

@exlondoner's thought of Cunard buildings in Italy led me to do some further research on Cunard offices in Europe.  I found a couple of historical passenger program guides from transatlantic crossings for both White Star and Cunard, and they had office addresses for passenger enquires.

 

Most of the addresses no longer exist, unfortunately fallen to the development wrecking ball or war damage.  Offices which no longer exist include:

• 10 Millbay Road, Plymouth.  Plymouth was an important stop on eastbound transatlantics.  It was the first port of call, and passengers could get off for a faster transfer to UK destinations, avoiding the next stops at Cherbourg and Southampton.  Unfortunately 10 Millbay Road is gone - looks like an empty lot on Street View.
• 18 Brazennose St., Manchester
• 49 Queen's Square, Belfast
• 30 Jamaica Street, Glasgow
• 140 N Dearborne Street, Chicago.  Chicago is interesting.  It too had a Cunard Building, built in 1916 and 14 stories tall.  It was the Chicago office for both Cunard and Anchor Line.  Passengers could take trains (either New York Central's 20th Centurey Limited or Pennsylvania's Broadway Limited) to New York to board their ships.  The building was demolished in 1962 to make way for the Richard Daly Center.  A photo is shown below.

 

Three buildings in two cities in Europe still exist, and I will continue in another post.

 

Edited December 17, 2020 by sfred

[sfred]

I found office addresses also in Stockholm and Paris, and these buildings have survived to current times.

• White Star Line, Skeppsbreon 10, Stockholm.  Sweden was also a large source of immigration to the US, so it isn't surprising that WSL would have a Stockholm office.  Skeppsbron, meaning "The Ship's Bridge" in Swedish is both a street and a quay in Gamla stan, the old town of Stockholm.  I was unable to find a corresponsing Cunard address.
• White Star Line, 9 Rue Scribe, Paris.  Photos exist of the building both in old times (the inevitable photo of people gathering after Titanic) and current.
• Cunard, 2 Rue Scribe, Paris.  Looks like it is now an Intercontinental hotel.

 

Still nothing in Italy, I'm afraid.

[exlondoner]

I thought they must have had an office in France and am relieved you found some in Paris. Le Havre and Cherbourg were both so badly bombed that any premises there may have been obliterated.

[sfred]

31 minutes ago, exlondoner said:

I thought they must have had an office in France and am relieved you found some in Paris. Le Havre and Cherbourg were both so badly bombed that any premises there may have been obliterated.

 

Yes, I thought about Cherbourg.  I haven't found any Cunard or WSL offices there, but there are several photos of the passenger terminal (common to all shipping lines) where the boat trains arrived and passengers took tenders out to their ships.  It was almost completely destroyed during the war, and there are a few photos showing piles of twisted iron and wreckage.  A pity, as it appeared to be a grand elaborate facility.

Edited December 17, 2020 by sfred