SHIPS I QE2. Port Rashid, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

The Queen’s ship ends its days in the harbour of another ruler

Yes, I do know Dubai is not officially part of the UK but a ship named after Her Majesty The Queen will surely always remain a hallowed piece of British soil. If you don’t agree please look away now…

In the words of the peerless architecture critic Edwin Heathcote; ‘Queen Elizabeth II was a transatlantic liner launched into the space age. It is a wonderful paradox, a final expression of the most glamorous mode and period of travel, which arrived on the seas in 1969 just as Concorde was making its first test flight and Apollo 11 was landing on the moon.’ Travelling to New York was infinitely quicker by Concorde but not half as stylish. 70,000 bottles of champagne were consumed every year on board and enough fruit juice to fill the pool eight times over. That’s a lorra lorra Bucks Fizz.

She went around the world 25 times so presumably, despite faster forms of travel, there was still some demand. In the 1980s she did a sideline service during the Falklands War carrying 3000 troops. Her hulls were reinforced with steel plating and an anti-magnetic coil was fitted to stop floating mines. Over 650 Cunard crew members volunteered for the mission, this is the patriotism of yesteryear.

There are numerous depictions of members of the British Royal Family throughout the ship’s corridors and naturally, she was launched by Queenie, who used the same pair of gold scissors her mother and grandmother used to launch the original Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary ships. Some debate remains as to whether the addition of the ‘2’ in her name is to differentiate her from her boaty forebear the QE1 or the Queen’s 16th-century forebear. Why split hairs over facts though? Netflix’s The Crown never does.

As the 2010s encroached it became clear that the old dear was on her last legs (the ship not the monarch). When Boris was London mayor he was keen to relocate her opposite the O2 at Greenwich but there were doubts she would make it through the Thames Barrier. The modern-day monarchs of Dubai stepped in with an offer to turn the ocean liner into a floating hotel, moored in Port Rashid. The land of the 7-star hotel had a difficult job to transform the 50-year-old ship to the standard demanded by your average visitor to Dubai. We live in an era of wealth where people want spanking newness, not vintage character. We also want a 6ft wide flat screen tv in our room surely? The makeover though is mighty fine, there is much that the Queen Mum would recognise, especially the fantastic Kubrickesque tulip-shaped columns throughout. Princess Margaret might even have enjoyed a tipple in the Golden Lion pub which incidentally is the oldest in Dubai. Maybe this new location is now its biggest strength. Dubai is a much more fascinating place than people give it credit for and as a masterpiece of reinvention, it’s pulled off the same trick for this fine old ship.

If you fancy a stay, you can book here