IT’S full steam ahead for a flagship museum in Southampton as work started yesterday on the £15m Sea City Museum.

The landmark project, being built by Kier Southern, will see the Grade II listed former magistrates' courts transformed into a museum about the ill-fated Titanic.

It is due to open in time to mark the 2012 centenary of the disaster in which 549 Sotonians perished.

Havlock Spur road closed today for 70-weeks for use as the main compound for the builders.

The police station office will remain open before moving to a site next to Southampton station in April next year.

Award winning architects Wilkinson Eyre have designed an eye-catching modernist building, drawing inspiration from the bows of ships while using building material that blends in with the existing building.

Hoardings will go up in the next couple of weeks displaying artist’s impressions, pictured above.