Reviving Alcanada's Power Station

Oh, here we go again. Remember the abandoned plans for the abandoned old power station in Alcanada? The abandonment of both may soon be over. One says soon, but how soon is soon? Ever?

Let's go back in time to days of plenty and projects for which money grew on relics of Mallorca's glorious industrial heritage. Over twenty million had been earmarked for "a clearing in the wood", the name given to the plan for the power station by the winning architects. It was to be a museum of arts and sciences, opened up to the shore and sea and incorporating the very much older defence tower (eighteenth century). It was, furthermore, to have become a reference point both for tourism and for culture in the north of Mallorca. No one ever actually explained how.

The idea wasn't that bad. It still wouldn't be that bad. This is because something, anything needs to be done with the old power station. It's looked after up to a point, but has of course long ago ceased to be used. When they built Es Murterar, some kilometres away by Albufera, there wasn't a plan for the old power station. It was simply left to rot, while the workers who had rented the cottages of the Poblat Gesa found that the urbanisation was allowed to rot as well.

Poblat Gesa will at some point become a shining beacon of residential redevelopment, Endesa cashing in on real estate inherited from the purchase of Gesa over thirty years ago. Gone will be an element of industrial heritage: an urbanisation which served the power station and which had officially been opened with due ceremony by the Generalissimo. The last thing that residents of the revived Poblat will want as a blocked sea view will be a rotting old power station. Time to rethink.

They were there last Tuesday. The Council of Mallorca's councillors for culture and infrastructure. They were examining this ruin. It is recognised as having industrial architectural value under a special plan, which is under a further plan - the land plan of Mallorca - which has spawned another plan, that for areas of landscape intervention. So many plans, so little product.

Under the architect plan, much of the power station would have remained. There's no point in valuing industrial architecture, if you then proceed to knock it down. Hence, and for example, the chimneys would continue to rise, ominous dual erections on the Alcudia coastline, prominent landmarks to be admired by those arriving on luxury small cruise ships docking at Alcudia's "boutique" port. Like the sometime-in-the-future residents of the Poblat, the high-purchase-power passengers demand an agreeable vista. Something, anything has to be done.

The "clearing in the wood" was greeted with some fanfare. Here was the future for the Alcanada power station. The future was very soon on hold. Then there was no future. It wasn't actually economic crisis that scuppered it. Even before crisis truly took a grip, there was an issue with the funding. The then mayor of Alcudia, Miquel Ferrer, said so: money didn't grow on old relics after all. That was in early 2008. Crisis did of course arrive. The power station was not deemed worthy of the millions, billions that the Zapatero government was tossing around under its "E" plans to environmentally buy Spain out of crisis (what crisis, as Zapatero didn't actually say but intimated). There was to be no governmental largesse for the power station.

Maria Salom, the president of the Council of Mallorca during the previous administration (2011-2015), once definitively said that nothing would be done with the power station. But these are different times. These are cultural heritage times of an alternative regime. In fact, the councillor for culture at the Council, Francesc Miralles, seems a decent chap, one who does have a genuine interest in combining culture with tourism. He hasn't, however, said what might happen with the power station. Museum possibly, but there is no clear statement about the future of the clearing in the wood.

One can but hope. The power station cannot simply be allowed to continue in its now decades-long limbo. Might it be a beneficiary of tourist tax revenue? Over twenty million would be a lot: roughly a quarter of annual collection. The regional government says that the tax won't be used for major projects; rather, a series of mini projects. But some revenue could go the power station's way. Don't rule it out.

However the funding might be for whatever the new plan might be, one hopes that this plan is more clearly explained than the last one. More clearly thought through in terms of what a museum (were it to be so) might entail, in terms of who actually might want to visit it and in terms of the return on investment.

* Photo from the abandoned Poblat of the power station taken a few years ago.

Don't Believe The Hype: Alcúdia and cruises

I guess you could say that it looked quite impressive, even with its sails down. I said to some old Mallorcan woman who was just staring vacantly in its general direction through the wire fencing that it was "impresionante". Not that I really meant it. It was more a case of finding something to say. She seemed somewhat startled by the fact that someone would say anything, but she agreed.

It would have looked a great deal more impressive had one been able to get up close. I knew there was little chance of doing so, but I asked the port cop anyway. You need to be accredited, he said, which I pretty much suspected would be his answer. I hadn't necessarily wanted to get right by it, just to be able to go up onto the elevated walkway so that I might get a decent opportunity of taking a photo, rather than taking one with the lens through the fence and at ground level, the result of which was useless.

Accreditation and all that, but was there not something to be said for letting people get up close? It was, after all, the first time a cruise ship (of sorts) had come to Alcúdia. The old Mallorcan woman would probably have relished the opportunity of staring vacantly from less of a distance. Should more of an occasion not have been made of this maiden cruise voyage to Alcúdia?

Perhaps they realised that it wasn't quite as it seemed. Don't believe the hype. I wonder who first coined this expression. Was it from the sixties? Ralph Nader maybe? Sounds like the sort of thing he would have said. It doesn't really matter, but hype there had been regarding Sea Cloud's visit to Alcúdia. The first cruise ship. The only problem was, as I came to realise when trying to trace the ship's movements, that it wasn't a cruise as such. Not a scheduled one, as it wasn't listed anywhere. A charter doesn't carry quite the same weight as a scheduled cruise does, and I assume that it had to have been a charter.

Consequently, and despite the spin that has come and will come not least from Alcúdia town hall, Sea Cloud's appearance doesn't mean a great deal. Not in terms of future cruise ships coming to Alcúdia.

The pre-Sea Cloud hype extended to all manner of possibilities. Excursions around Alcúdia, more custom for local restaurants and shops, putting Alcúdia on the cruise map, even combatting seasonality. The only one of these that might be said to have some substance is that to do with the map. But then presumably cruise lines already know. They only have to look at a map.

I shook my head with amused disbelief at the apologetic table that had been laid out with a white cloth near to the entrance (and exit) to the terminal. There were a few "siurells", examples of local product, and some leaflets, one for the local restaurant association. It was pitiable in truth. The ship was in port for sic hours, there were only 47 passengers, they were travelling on a ship with five-star dining, and the hype would have it that the restaurants would suddenly be inundated with high-net-worth custom from a ship that would normally set you back around three and a half grand for a seven-day cruise. By the time I got down to the port, it was gone eleven. The ship had been in port for over three hours and was due to set sail at two. I counted at least 20 passengers who were already returning. So much for the excursions, so much for the local restaurants.

As I was walking away from the terminal, my less than adequate photos about to be deleted, I wondered what first impressions a visitor on a cruise ship would have. As you leave the terminal area and head towards the Paseo Marítimo, there isn't, if I am being honest, anything that is particularly remarkable. In fact, there isn't anything remarkable. Pleasant, but then so are many places. And what of the sight as you come into port? To quote Son Fe Mick, who commented on my previous article about Sea Cloud (22 July, "The Phantom Cruise'"), there is a "bloody great rusty power station. When are they going to knock it down and build a 1000 year old cathedral?" The point is very well made. Enter Palma by sea and the cathedral dominates the landscape. Enter Alcúdia and it is an abandoned power station.

An architect friend of mine, who hadn't know the background to the power station and plans for its redevelopment (now almost certainly also abandoned) until I told him, was amazed at the idea that they would keep the chimneys, which is what the plans envisaged. Industrial heritage and its preservation is fine, but only in the right context. Alcúdia's power station isn't Battersea's. It isn't the Tate Modern, which was part of the inspiration for the plans. It should be removed, and that includes the chimneys. But chances are that it won't be, and so future cruise passengers (two ships are scheduled for next year but won't have that many more passengers than Sea Cloud) will be confronted with the sight of the power station.

Alcúdia as a cruise destination. Nice idea, but don't believe the hype.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

MALLORCA TODAY - Alcúdia art and science museum in mothballs

Maria Salom, the president of the Council of Mallorca, has described the project to convert the old power station in Puerto Alcúdia to an arts and science museum as having not been realistic. She criticised previous administrations for not appreciating the budgetary demands of the project which for now seems destined not to happen.