Supermarine factory sites - then and now

This is an aerial photo of the Supermarine Woolston factory on the banks of the Itchen in the 1930s, prior to it being bombed by the Luftwaffe.

And this an image from Google Earth, slightly tilted, of the same site now. 

The rectangular shape of the plot of land, with a slight 'kink' on the riverside edge, looks pretty much the same still. There are two obvious differences: one is, of course, that the Supermarine factory is gone. And the other is the Itchen Bridge, which was opened in 1977. 

But one structure from the original factory is still there ... did you spot it?

Before I get to that, let's first look at the southern part of the site (on the right in the aerial photos). That part of the site is now fully occupied by housing. Looking down from the Itchen Bridge, you can clearly see the Spitfire laid out in paving stones in Spitfire Court. 

We were actually in Spitfire Court recently to see that Spitfire 'paving' on the ground.

Looking down from the Itchen Bridge on the northern part of the site (on the left in the aerial photos), you can clearly see the original slipway of the Supermarine factory, which is currently an officially 'listed structure'. 

On the ground, there is some housing on the northern part of the site, with the rest being occupied by the Marine Skills Centre and Aggregates Industries. It wasn't possible to get close to the slipway itself, but I still managed to get a picture of it through a fence.

Just north of the Woolston factory was the Itchen factory, which was also bombed, and this is a current aerial photo of both sites (north is left in the photo).

See the (larger) slipway?

Here is an aerial picture of the factory then; the slipway is in top right corner.

And here an aerial photo of the site now (north is up; slipway is pointing to the left). 

There is basically nothing left of the Itchen Supermarine factory, but several places on the site clearly hint at its former presence!

The site as a whole is now called 'RJ Mitchell Centre'.

The Siva Group occupies a building known as the 'Spitfire House'

Opposite the Spitfire House is the Spitfire Joinery

Turn the corner and you find yourself on Spitfire Quay.

And one of the premises on Spitfire Quay is occupied by the Spitfire Garage

The slipway proved inaccessible because of the industrial premises (aggregate and concrete plants, cement terminals, recycling plants, etc) that are currently on the site, cheek by jowl. We couldn't get to the water's edge anywhere on the site, and also tried from the other bank of the Itchen, with the same result.

The best we could do is catch only merest glimpse of the slipway, through a fence (yes, that flat darker structure almost totally hidden behind the piles of sand ...)

So there you go! Virtually nothing is left of either of the two Supermarine factories, but look more closely and you'll see clear hints and traces of their history. And I wouldn't be surprised if we missed some of these traces ... watch this space?