Inverness Prison site idea could help capture more tourists
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INVERNESS’S tourist offering could be boosted by turning the potentially former prison into an offbeat visitor attraction, it has been suggested.
With the Scottish Prison Service on the brink of lodging an official planning application to replace the current Porterfield Prison in the Crown area of the city, Stuart Black has suggested it could be a real opportunity.
As Highland Council’s director of development and infrastructure, and the man in charge of city centre regeneration, Mr Black floated the idea during a discussion with the Inverness Courier after we relaunched our Reinvent the City Centre campaign to champion innovative thinking on future development.
“If you look at what has been done with former prisons in other parts of the country the opportunity to be quite creative is definitely there,” he said.
“For example, could it be a new hotel like the Malmaison development in Oxford.
“Or could we look to Peterhead where the former prison there has opened as a visitor attraction and proved quite successful. In line with the ongoing work at Inverness Castle, could that be an opportunity to expand the offering for visitors in the city centre area and keep them here for longer?”
Despite arguably sounding an initially fairly morbid note, prisons as visitor attractions have proved very popular in other parts of the country.
Peterhead Prison Museum opened to the public in June last year after the prison itself closed at the end of 2013.
In the months since then it has welcomed some 45,000 visitors through its gates, with tourists able to experience facilities through the ages, getting a taste of what prison life would have been like from the time it first opened in 1888 through to modern times.
The attraction won a four-star VisitScotland rating following an unannounced visit at the end of last year.
At Inveraray Jail visitors can view cells, sample prison punishments from the 19th century and even search through prison records for tales of past misdemeanours.
Perhaps the most famous former prison, Alcatraz off the coast of San Francisco, welcomes 1.5 million visitors annually.
Porterfield opened in 1902 and caters for more than 100 prisoners.
The Scottish Prison Service is consulting on its replacement and has said that it hopes to have a planning application lodged by the summer, with the new prison near Inverness Shopping Park completed by the end of 2020 or start of 2021.
The idea of Porterfield as a tourist attraction, however, has split views among city leaders.
Mike Smith, manager of Inverness Business Improvement District, said: “It’s a really interesting, innovative idea.
“We obviously need additional visitor attractions, given the very high level of tourists we are now getting, and I’d be delighted to work with anyone on making this happen if or when it becomes a solid proposition.
“Anything that adds to the visitor experience in Inverness has to be a good thing.”
But Stewart Nicol, chief executive of Inverness Chamber of Commerce, wondered if the prison was in the right place to provide any real boost to the city centre or work as an attraction in its own right.
“There is some merit there, but I would be concerned that it’s a bit too far out of the city centre, either in terms of visitors getting there or in terms of any benefits that the centre would get from it,” he said.
“Also I think Peterhead Prison perhaps benefits from a bit of a notorious history in terms of the inmates that were housed there over the years and so on.
“I don’t think Inverness has that kind of colourful past – it also perhaps doesn’t have the great location of somewhere like Inveraray Jail.
“To my mind we really need to be focused on getting things in the heart of the city centre.
“The castle is under way and we also need to be looking at the Victorian Market and getting it sorted.
“That would be a really key step forward.”
Mr Black is set to be one of the panel members at the Courier’s breakfast meeting on May 26, bringing together politicians and leading business figures to discuss their ideas for improving the city centre in front of a specially invited audience.
He will be joined by Inverness MP Drew Hendry; Eden Court chief executive Colin Marr; Inverness College UHI depute principal Roddy Henry; city businessman Charlie Barbour and others.
The Courier’s Reinvent the City Centre campaign aims to spark debate, attract ideas and push for change.
