By Martin Brisland.
In the latest in our series of fun facts about Southampton we look at some more little known gems about the city.
Christmas 2025
Just over three hundred years ago Southampton’s ‘Father of English Hymn Writing’ Isaac Watts published one of today’s best-loved Christmas hymns, Joy to the World. Intended as an Easter hymn, it has become associated with Christmas. His family lived in French Street, and he attended King Edward VI School, which at that time was in Bugle Street.
A Christmas record released on 22 November 1963, the same day that President Kennedy was assassinated, was ‘A Christmas Gift For You From Phil Spector’. It included ‘The Bells of St. Mary’s’ sung by Bobb B. Soxx and The Blue Jeans.
The song was written about the new bells installed in 1914 in St.Mary’s Church, Southampton. Two songwriters on their way to the USA by ship from Southampton docks heard the bells and composed the song. It was featured in the film The Bells of St. Mary’s, released in December 1945 starring Ingrid Bergman and Bing Crosby, and became a major hit for Crosby.
Benny Hill was born in Bernard Street, Southampton, in 1924. In 1971, Benny reached number one on the Christmas charts with his novelty record Ernie, the Fastest Milkman in the West. One of his homes was at 22, Westrow Gardens, Southampton. The number 22 is mentioned in the song lyric as the house number of his love interest, Sue.
Jona Lewie had a Christmas hit single with the anti-war song ‘Stop the Cavalry’ in December 1980. Jona (real name John Lewis) was born in Hythe in 1947.
Richard I (1157-1199), often called Richard the Lionheart, may have spent his only Christmas in England in Southampton Castle in 1194. This was stated by Southampton historians including the Victorian Rev. John Silvester Davies and Elsie M. Sandell in the 1950s.
A local rich merchant Gervaise Le Riche had paid part of his ransom; the King having been imprisoned abroad during the Crusades.
However, recent research indicates that although Richard was here earlier that year, there is no evidence of him still being here at Christmastime.
From 1806 to 1809, author Jane Austen lived with her mother and sister in a property owned by her brother Frank at 2, Castle Square. It no longer exists but the former Juniper Berry pub was later built on the site.
A favourite Christmas pastime then was ice skating in an area to the east of God’s House, today occupied by Queen’s Park.
In Jane’s letters written in Southampton she recalls her brother Frank skating on ‘The Beach.’
She does recount, in one of her 161 surviving letters, a Winter Ball she attended at the Dolphin Hotel in December 1809. ‘The room was tolerably full, and there were perhaps thirty couples of dancers; the melancholy part was to see so many dozen young women standing by without partners, and each of them with two ugly naked shoulders!’
Jane was resident in Southampton when the current statue of King George III was unveiled on the south side of the Bargate in 1809.
During Christmas 1819 it is recorded that the ill King spoke nonsense for ‘58 hours non-stop’ . He was to die in January 1820.
A survivor of the 1940 Blitz, the Bargate has witnessed centuries of Christmas celebrations. Christmas 1940, however, saw no pantomimes, and wartime blackout regulations meant there were few festivities. Southampton was still reeling from the extensive bombing raids of late November and early December 1940.
The Echo recorded: “War is the very opposite of the spirit of Christmas and all that it means; yet amidst the strife and the struggle, the Christmas spirit lives in the hearts of the British people. The prelude to the second Christmas of the Second World War has certainly been strange, unreal, and difficult.
“Rationing… the shopping rush to beat the blackout… the ever-increasing need for care in balancing domestic budgets… dispersal of families… uncertainties. If it is less of an occasion for feasting and self-indulgence and more a welcomed opportunity to be self-less, we may count it amongst the happiest days of our lives.
“Let us then be cheery as we know how; let us determine to make others cheery; let us make it a real Christmas Day.’’
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