From D-Day craft to nightclub - the full story of Portsmouth's LCT 7074
THE journey to bring a D-Day landing craft to Southsea has been many years in the making.
LCT 7074 was commissioned in April 1944 ahead of Operation Overlord, and headed to Normandy from Folkstone, Kent, with the 7th Armoured Division.
Arriving at Gold Beach, LCT 7074 was carrying a Cromwell tank, two Sherman tanks and seven Stuart tanks, plus 45 crew members.
But when the Second World War came to an end, the landing craft’s fortunes changed dramatically.
In 1948, she was decommissioned and sold to Merseyside Master Marinas, lying dormant for more than 20 years.
Then in the 70s and 80s she popped back up along Liverpool’s waterfront, as a nightclub called Landfall.
While it was a hugely popular venue, the vessel fell into disrepair and eventually sank into the Mersyside dock in 2010.
Thanks to an emergency grant from the National Heritage Memorial Fund, the National Museum of the Royal Navy was able to fund a rescue operation, and bring the landing craft to Portsmouth in October 2014.
Since then, a painstaking restoration project has been taking place in what has been a multi-million pound project.
Too large to be placed inside the D-Day Story Museum in Southsea, a canopy was built outside to house the vessel.
Initially, the plan was to have her unveiled as part of the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings last year – but due to the sheer size of the restoration this wasn’t possible.
Now, following crowdfunding campaigns and a lot of hard work, LCT 7074 is ready to be officially unveiled to the public.