Watch as Manx National Heritage's Steve Blackford talks about the revised Laxey Wheel Visitor Hub

Transcript

00:00So the original building was sited over the existing visitor entrance kiosk.

00:07So it was quite forward on the car park as you parked and walked up from it.

00:12So what we've done is we've moved it to the other side of the car park and set it back.

00:18So we've opened up views to the wheel.

00:21We removed the kiosk, we opened them up even more from that perspective.

00:25And we've set it further back so that it sits lower down as you come up the car park

00:30and blends into the wooded area behind it.

00:34And what will be inside the new site?

00:37Inside the new building it will predominantly be a visitor entrance with admissions and retail.

00:46So visitors will come in and they'll meet our site team who will give them a welcome,

00:53sell them their ticket to go into the site.

00:55And then there's also staff welfare facilities.

00:59There's an office, an admin area at the back of it so that our staff can go and sit in there

01:04out of the cold and the wind and have a hot drink or have a break.

01:09Yeah, absolutely. And just finally, you said that the Lexi Wheel was your third most visited site.

01:14How important is it to get this right that Lexi Wheel is preserved and kept well?

01:19It was a massive project just about to be completed at Lexi Wheel, of course.

01:22So how important is it to get this whole visitor experience a lot better?

01:25Oh, it's very important for us.

01:27Lexi is our third most visited site, but it's an iconic site for the Isle of Man.

01:34Everybody knows about the Lexi Wheel.

01:36So it's really important that we provide a better visitor experience for people getting there

01:41and that we provide them with more opportunities to understand the site and what they're coming to visit

01:50and also gives us an opportunity to generate some income for the charity

01:54through increased admissions and retail sales.