Southampton’s favourite building…the results are in!

By Mabel Wellman. Main image by Mike Daish. 

Over April we at In Common have organised a public vote to find out what building is officially the Best Building In Southampton.

We have had 18 nominations from our readers, and we are very grateful to have so many responses to our poll to find our winner.

The buildings nominated include residential properties, such as the Brutalist monolith that is Wyndham Court, many venues such as Harbour Lights Picturehouse, and the most important landmarks of our city’s history like the medieval town walls and Bargate.

We have had one very clear winner we are happy to announce below, here is a run-down of the top five of the best buildings in Southampton voted for by you!

#5 Gods House Tower

Gods House Tower is fifth place on our vote, securing 6.3% of the vote. One person who voted for Gods House Tower told us they voted for the building because of the “Wonderful historic building brought back to life with many visual arts exhibitions, live music nights and creative workshops.” Other people who voted for Gods House Tower and chose to give a reason also gave similar compliments to the grade 1 listed building’s renovation to make it a very important arts and heritage building in Southampton.

#4 Civic Centre

Southampton Civic Centre came in next with 8.8% of the vote share. In our nomination round we had some people nominate the clocktower, Sea City Museum and Guildhall separately; for the purpose of our vote we lumped these together for what are all different parts of the same municipal building.

One voter gave us the following very detailed explanation for their choice in the poll: 

“A masterpiece of Art Deco design inside and out, and possibly the last example of both functional and beautiful architectural design for a purely public service function, combining key branches of civic life: local governance, arts and culture, and (originally) the courts and police. Arguably the pinnacle of Southampton’s civic development, I think it’s as important for what it symbolises about Southampton in the 1930s as it is beautiful in its own right.”

#3 Tudor House And Garden

In third place is the Tudor House and Garden (12.5% vote share) which is another grade 1 listed building. One voter called the garden a “tranquil space” and another one added praise for the volunteers who help to run the space. Tudor House and Garden is over 800 years old (originally called King John’s Palace and being smaller) and has been a museum since 1912. According to the museum’s website, the garden has been carefully planned out in the 1980s in accordance with old manuscripts  and historical documents to show how the garden may have looked in the 1500s.

#2 Wyndham Court

Wyndham Court came in second place in our vote for the best building in Southampton with 16.2% of the vote share. This block of flats contains 184 flats, with 13 shops and 3 cafes on the ground floor. The block is an example of council housing in a bygone era, Wyndham Court was originally designed to house professionals, and immense effort was made to perfect both the inside and outside of the building. Many of the apartments are two or three bedroom maisonettes which feature a balcony on the downstairs living room and main bedroom.

The building was completed in 1969 and in 1966 won an Architectural Design Project award, later on in 1998 the building became grade 2 listed. The building has always been my favourite in Southampton to the point I tried to buy my first home there (which sadly was not possible). Many other voters have shared similar sentiments of the building being such a unique, iconic and bold form of brutalist architecture which we should all be happy to have in our city.

# 1 The Joiners Arms

With an incredible 36.3% of the vote share (more than twice that of second place), we are proud to announce The Joiners Arms as our official best building in Southampton.

Like our runner up, this isn’t the first time The Joiners has been given an award. In 2013 NME crowned The Joiners with their “Britain’s Best Small Venue” title. The Joiner’s has a fantastic list of bands and performers which have performed at the venue, including Ed Sheeran, David Gray, Green Day and Oasis to name just some examples.

Many voters remarked that it’s not just the heritage that building provides to be a reason for their decision, but the magical atmosphere that the music provides. One voter remarked: “It’s not really about the building, more what goes on there. The support this place gives to live and music and the community built around it is truly amazing! The toilets won’t win any awards!”

With another voter adding: “The Joiners is an institution and provides a meeting place for people not seen for some years. It also offers a service for new musicians to learn their trade. It is at the heart of the St Marys community.”

We have had a fantastic number of buildings nominated by yourselves, the readers of In Common, thank you for taking part. Below is a pie chart showing the proportion of votes in our poll, do note how the top five only make up 80.1% of the vote shares, 20% is shared from the other 13 buildings nominated. Some honorary mentions include the Harbour Lights Picturehouse (3.7% vote share) and South Western House (2.5% vote share). This vote just shows how lucky we are to have a diverse amount of not just architecturally inspiring buildings, but also vibrant venues in Southampton that help make up our local culture. We hope this has shown you both old and new venues and buildings around the city which you can either visit as a venue or walk past and appreciate in a new light.

Are there any places you haven’t heard of before which you will now plan on visiting? Let us know in the social media comments.