As a qualified local tour guide, I have discovered that locals and overseas tourists alike know little of our city, other than the Titanic left from here in 1912.
Of course, that story had a profound effect on Southampton, as hundreds of the deceased crew came from the city.
Southampton was an attractive provincial town, prior to the Southampton Blitz of late 1940, which destroyed about seventy percent of the then town’s central buildings.
We did not become a city until February 1964.
After World War Two, the local council decided to build a brave new world, rather than replace the old destroyed buildings as they once were. Notable architects of the day were employed to design buildings, sometimes using concrete. The style often used was Brutalism, and Southampton has some surviving examples.
In fact, Wyndham Court near the Central Station is now a Grade II listed building. There are also examples of the old Southampton that still survive, such as fine Georgian houses in the Bedford Place area.
If you look up above the modern shop fronts, one can still see some examples of past notable buildings. For example, Oakley and Watling in the High Street. This firm supplied the fruit and vegetables to the White Star line ships, including the Titanic.
Southampton has some particularly ghastly, grim, and gory aspects to its history.
The site of the Old Admiralty Gallows is now a Tesco convenience store, just inside the entrance to Ocean Village. Public hangings took place on the Common, near Bassett crossroads, until the late 18th century. In medieval times executions, such as those who had plotted against Henry V in 1415, took place by the Bargate and were described by William Shakespeare in Henry V. Conspirators were hung, drawn and quartered apart from one of Royal blood, who was granted the right to be beheaded.
Southampton’s jewel in the crown is the estimated forty-eight surviving medieval wine vaults. These were used in World War Two as ready-made air-raid shelters and saved many lives. Some vaults can still be accessed to this day as part of a See Southampton guided tour. Since 2009, the Music in the City event has brought life into the underground vaults, with live bands playing to crowds of people.
A lot of people who have performed good or bad deeds are linked to Southampton. Noted author Jane Austen, lived in Castle Square, Southampton from 1806-09. Jack Mantle, a young recipient of the Victoria Cross has Jack’s Corner at Southampton Sports Centre named in his memory.
General Rosas helped create modern Argentina, but was seen by some as a dictator, and had to flee into exile by boat. He arrived in Southampton and spent thirty years here on, what was then, a farm at the lower end of Burgess Road, Swaythling.
Roger Pope was Elton John’s’ drummer in the early 1970s and played on the hit record, Don’t go Breaking My Heart.
Admiral Jellicoe, who led the British Navy against the German fleet, during the 1916 battle of Jutland, was born and lived all his life in Southampton.
The mother of magician and comedian, Tommy Cooper, had a shop in Shirley Road for many years.
In Peartree Churchyard there is a memorial to the story of 17 year-old Richard Parker. Shipwrecked in 1884 with two others he lost his life to cannibalism so the others could survive.
The notorious Kray Twins, although London based, had links to Hamble.
Many think that the Mayflower left Plymouth for America in 1620. This was never intended. Southampton was meant to be its final port of departure that August, and all the provisions needed for life in North America were purchased here. Two ships left, the Mayflower and Speedwell, but they stopped at Plymouth for repairs to the Speedwell and only the Mayflower continued to America.
One young Southampton man, John Alden, was taken on as a Cooper’ to maintain the barrels of supplies. He married a young girl from one of the pilgrim families onboard and successfully stayed in America. He became the longest living person from the Mayflower ship, at ninety years of age.
As Southampton rapidly expanded, in the 19th century public health became a major issue. Overcrowding in the central slum area was worse than in the East End of London. Outbreaks of Cholera and Typhoid are documented until the late eighteen hundreds.
In the 1890s, the death of prostitute, Ellen Wren, caused a public outcry. Nobody noticed her decomposing body, maybe due to the general stench in the area. Southampton embarked upon a slum clearance and the building of more modern public housing. These were possibly the first council houses in England.
A long-standing rivalry between Southampton and (near neighbours) Portsmouth, can be traced back to the dock strike of 1890. This was when troops from Portsmouth, were used to break the strike in Southampton. The rivalry continues today through partisan support for the respective football teams.
Southampton Football Club has a link with Wiliam Wilberforce, who led the parliamentary campaign to abolish the slave trade. His grandson Basil Wilberforce was rector of St. Mary’s Church from 1871. In 1885, he set up a football team for the young men of the area, which has developed into the professional club we know today, with the nickname the Saints.
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