| As the Queens Room and the Midship Lobby conjured up visions
of interplanetary travel, the Midship Bar brought passengers back to mother earth.
It was a lush, dark, green forest of mohair, velvet and deep pile carpet. Perhaps the dim
light and soft fabrics were a welcome escape from the space age polymers of the rest of
the ship, for the room hardly changed over 25 years. In 1994, it was transformed into the
Chart Room, a bar which featured a more traditional nautical decor. |
| Cool Britannia: The Sixties were a sparkling time for
England. She burst on to the pop culture scene with the same audacity and mastery that the
Americans had in the Fifties. The styles of taste and fashion, the trends that were set
and re-set, were dictated by Carnaby Street, Kings Row, the Beatles and the Stones.
London, for all its icons and momuments to past ages was a cool place to be for the New
Generation. The very image of Britain, the Thames at Westminster, fills the wall in the Coffee
Shop. The room failed however at evoking any of the trendy air as London in the late
Sixties did. Instead it served an almost exclusively American style role as an all night
diner at sea. The Coffee Shop provided waitress service around the clock and passengers
could get light meals and breakfast fare. The concept today is very popular on cruise
ships, but on QE2 the 24-hour Coffee Shop disappeared during the 1972 re-fit. |
