13 High Street (south)

ContextThis area centres on the southern end of the High Streetand comprises the south-eastern quarter of the areacovered by the medieval walled town. About 50% of itsarea has been developed as high density residentialdevelopment yet it retains much visible archaeology. Thearea abuts CA17 to the east, CA12, the Upper HighStreet to the north, CA11, the western half of the walledtown, and CA35, Town Quay and Mayflower Park, to thesouth. The area is almost flat, but slopes graduallytowards the waterfront.

The existing length of High Street was, until the four-teenth century, divided into two by Holy Rood Churchraising questions about the origins of the lower part ofHigh Street. It is thought that the area to the east of HighStreet was more intensively developed than the land tothe west – the fact that the Franciscan Friars were ableto build a friary within the area suggests that there wasspace available here in the mid-thirteenth century. Afterthis time the area possibly became a more favourablearea for merchants, especially after the development ofTown Quay. The historic character of the area differedfrom the south-west corner of the walled town as it hadlong burgage plots stretching back to the town wall orthe Friary contrasting with the network of streets west ofHigh Street.

GrainThe area is structured around the High Street whichtends to slightly narrow and curve from north to south.Briton Street joins it at the midway point. Until theconstruction of the residential development, BritonStreet formed a crossroads which, to the west of HighStreet, swept northward as Castle Way to join FrenchStreet to the west. This western extension (a post-warintervention) has now become part of a building plot.Bernard Street forms the northern boundary of the area,the line of the medieval wall and South Gate thesouthern boundary and French Street the westernboundary. Much of the original grain of deep burgageplots with narrow frontage has disappeared as a resultof recent development. The only significant remnants areat the northern end of the area. Even some of theseplots remain only in their alignment, having been rebuiltin the 1950s.

Most of the centre of the area has been redeveloped asperimeter blocks. Brewhouse Lane has been reinstatedas part of the redevelopment of this area and nowsuccessfully links High Street and French Street, and isterminated by the timber-framed Tudor Merchant’sHouse on French Street. Two historic lanes situatedbehind the walls, Winkle Street and Porters Lane, runparallel with the walls facing the waterfront and are animportant survival of the pattern of cross lanes present

Southampton City Council

City Characterisation Project

January 2009 107

Southampton document pt.1 19/1/09 18:50 Page 107

from the medieval period. The grain becomes more looseand open in the south-west corner due to the school andits playgrounds, and the creation of a pocket parkaround the ruins of the medieval walls.

ScaleA variety of building heights and scales exist within thearea; from two storey 1950s redevelopment in the northeastern extremity, to three to five storey 19th and early20th century civic scaled buildings, to six to sevenstorey residential developments dating from the last fiveto seven years. Street sections reflect the general senseof enclosure in the Area, from about 1 : 1.5 : 1 in BritonStreet to 1 : 1 : 0.8 in parts of High Street, to 1 : 0.3 :1 in the reinstated Brewhouse Lane. A sense of open-ness is experienced in the south-west corner of the Area.

The best surviving group of traditionally massed build-ings is around the High Street/Briton Street corner(south-west side), with continuous articulated elevationsand skyline interest. Similar massing exists almost oppo-site on the east side. There is also a good group to thenorth side of Town Quay of between two and four storeysand set in narrow plots (some of which have been amal-gamated giving a varied but pleasingly traditionally scaledtownscape). Otherwise most of the recent residentialdevelopment tends to be flat roofed, albeit with a morevaried roofline than its 1950s – 1960s counterparts.

UsesThe predominant use above ground floor is residential,although there is also a significant amount of commer-cial office space. Some shops are located in thenorthern half of the area and the newly completedblocks contain lettable office space. There are 3 or 4pubs in the area and some restaurants facing the TownQuay. A primary school fronts onto French Street and theCity Archaeology Service occupies a former schoolbuilding.

Public RealmLittle public realm exists other than pavements, exceptin the extreme south-west corner area where there is apocket park which absorbs the difference of level ofabout 2.5 metres between the area north of the wallsand the Town Quay. The park is of relatively recent dateand has a suburban, rather than urban, portside char-acter. The soft landscape is dominated by shrubs,flowerbeds and grass, rather than trees. The parkprovides a rare elevated vantage point to view the water-front.

There is some remnant paving to Winkle Street andalong the link to the Back of the Walls.

ConnectivityHigh Street and French Street provide good north-southconnectivity. The lanes at the southern end, Winkle

Southampton City Council

City Characterisation Project

108 January 2009

01 Remnants of the walls seen looking south into Back of the Walls02 View looking west through God’s House Gate into the walled town03 New development to southern end of High Street within setting of

impressive survivals of Medieval wall

1

2

3

Southampton document pt.1 19/1/09 18:50 Page 108

Street and Porters Lane, Briton Street and the reinstatedBrewhouse Lane, and Bernard Street to the north,provide less direct but nonetheless important east-westlinks. The school grounds also tend to inhibit east – westmovement. There is poor pedestrian connectivity to theTown Quay due to the traffic-dominated Town Quay Road.

ViewsGlimpsed views through the arch of God’s House Towerlooking into Winkle Street and glimpses through thegate towards the waterfront (or at least the docks) arevaluable townscape features of this part of the char-acter area.

The reinstated Brewhouse Lane is very attractively termi-nated once more by the timber-framed facade of theMedieval Merchant’s House. Views along Briton Streetare now terminated by a new development helping tocontinue to give the perception of a high degree of enclo-sure within this character area.

The strategic view to St Michael’s spire passes along thenorthern boundary of this character area.

Building typesPre-war building types include 19th century commercialpremises of small to medium size, warehouses (some ofthe few remaining in the city, again relatively small),community buildings and pubs. Post-war buildings arepredominantly flats over shops on medium to large foot-prints. There are also apartment blocks, again on rela-tively deep plans.

Architectural qualitiesThe most coherent and architecturally significant groupsof historic buildings are those at the junction of HighStreet and Bernard Street (south-west corner) and therange on the east side of the High Street, a little furthersouth. They date from the Victorian and Edwardianperiods and are consequently an eclectic mix of styles,which nevertheless relate well to each other as theyhave similar eaves/cornice heights and plot widths.Those buildings on Bernard Street form an effectiveframing ensemble, with the former Bank building on thenorth side of Bernard Street (Area 12) enclosing the viewto the east end of St Michael’s Church. The buildingshere are mostly Italianate with lively texture and details.The Gothic-Revival buildings in this group face HighStreet and the rooflines are particularly well designed.Across the road the Art Nouveau white faience workfacade of the pub is unique in Southampton as a repre-sentative of a rare style, and designed with confidence.The building’s neighbours are Edwardian Baroque incharacter, in their use of red brick and warm buff stonebanding.

The other ranges of buildings lie hard against thesouthern medieval walls. These include a red brick ware-

house of the latter end of the 19th century, a localskyline feature. This building helps to provide someenclosure and street frontage, where little exists in thispart of the Area. A little further east another range ofvaried architectural periods, uses and elevationaldesign, is nevertheless coherent due to the controllinggrain of the plots. The very late Victorian school has arobust architectural design. The modest example of theArts and Crafts style building; the Mission Hall (now theCity Archaeology Unit) has some well-detailed features;particularly the small belfry attached to the chimney andthe fine Arts and Crafts porch. The remainder is over-whelmingly of recent origin, displaying features of theearly twenty-first century, especially in the use of func-tionally expressed steel lintels and balconies. Generally,these buildings are of neutral character and in placesover-scaled. The most distinguished recent elevationsare those of the retirement flats on the east side ofFrench Street, opposite the Merchant’s House (Area 11).These are of appropriate massing and scale, with wellconsidered gable end designs.

Heritage AssetsThe area is considered to possess a high degree ofevidential value due to its particularly rich survival ofhighly significant and visible remains of Southampton’smedieval past, most of which are Scheduled Monumentsand some are also listed. The town wall to the east,God’s House Tower and museum and adjacent gatewayand the remains of the Watergate and the remains of theSouth Gate are part of one of the best preservedmedieval town walls in the country although the eastsection is largely hemmed in by development. Thesehighly significant heritage assets are culturally importantin their role of defining how the medieval city functionedand was ordered. They have associative value for theirhistoric role as one of the most important ports inEngland. Other highly significant assets include thetwelfth century Merchant’s House, Canute’s Palace, andthe remains of vaults, some obscured on what appear tobe vacant sites and the hospital of St Julian (or God’sHouse) on Winkle Street. The setting of these assets isnot always appropriate and development has gone someway to eroding the heritage values, particularly aestheticvalues with associated with these assets. For example,some have been fenced off by railings or used asinformal car parking areas. A fragment of medieval wallon the east side of the High Street at the serviceentrance to new development is not well integrated intothe scheme and is partially obscured by traffic signs.The proximity of the very busy Town Quay Road does notprovide a sympathetic setting. The pattern of streets andlanes is evidence of the extensive survival from themedieval town and is a culturally significant and illustra-tive element of the heritage of Southampton.

Adjacent to the town wall was the site of the medievalFriary which had a burial ground where many merchants

Southampton City Council

City Characterisation Project

January 2009 109

Southampton document pt.1 19/1/09 18:50 Page 109

of the town were buried. The development of this part oflower High Street in the medieval period, with thesuggested movement of the merchant classes to thearea to the east of High Street after the construction ofthe defences is of particular interest. For this reason,this area is considered to have high evidential value interms of what information can be gained from thesequencing of progressive development on sites andhow this has influenced present development. There isalso evidence for the Roman and late Saxon use andoccupation of this area. Accordingly, any archaeologicalremains within the area are regarded as being ofnational importance and the area is within a Local Areaof Archaeological Importance to reflect this potential toyield significant evidence for past activity in the area.

Geddes Warehouse stands on the former line of thetown walls and forms an important part of the sequenceof buildings in this area which form landmarks of historicand aesthetic significance (including God’s House Towerand gate). Although they are not necessarily the tallestbuildings within the character area or within their imme-diate environs, they reinforce the sense of the ‘townwall’ defining the medieval town.

The Red Lion, despite its unassuming late facade, hidesa late fifteenth/early sixteenth century hall and timberframe and is Grade II* listed. For this reason, it isconsidered this building has cultural as well as illustra-tive value in so much as what the building tells us aboutthe building type; inns and the commercial trade associ-ated with the town in this period. There are a number oflater listed buildings, two locally listed buildings and thearea lies within the Old Town South Conservation Area.The remaining listed and locally listed buildings reflectthe high quality and good survival of evidential andaesthetic values relating to how Southampton developedover time to its present position.

MaterialsTraditional materials include stone, mainly rubble for thetown walls and gates; some Portland Stone and BathStone for dressings, cills, pediments etc; otherwisepredominantly brick, mainly red, some darker, somebuff. Faience work appears on one prominent facade.Recent architecture makes considerable use of render of

various colours and shades, in juxtaposition with semi-engineering brickwork (buff or red).

ConditionHistoric buildings are in reasonable condition, althoughsome show possible neglect. Some upper floors areeither unused or underused. Recent buildings are ingood condition.

OwnershipGenerally medium to small scale ownership, commercialdevelopment in company management, some in CityCouncil and Local Education Authority ownership.

Interventionn Most of the area has now been redeveloped. The

historic buildings (outlined above) that are not statu-tory listed could be vulnerable to redevelopment orunsympathetic refurbishment. Therefore it is impor-tant to maintain an active watching brief over thesebuildings. Efforts should be made to encourage theuse of upper floors.

n The setting of the Walls and Gates.n A plan for the sensitive safeguarding, presentation

and management of the setting of these importantassets should be considered and implemented. Thisshould be integrated with similar plans for the Walls inCharacter Area 11.

Design Principlesn Active conservation of historic buildings, structures

and below ground remains in any development on ornear to Heritage Assets.

n The design and location of any conversion, extension,signage or shopfitting works should be the subject ofexper t advice. Replica heritage or insensitiveapproaches should be avoided.

n A general scheme for the north and east walls(including CAs 15 and 17) should be developed as apriority (developing upon the work of the Old TownDevelopment Strategy – April 2004 Southampton CityCouncil).

n The opportunity should be taken to celebrate and rein-force the survival of early streets and lanes andencourage the reinstatement of these where they arelost and where at all possible.

Southampton City Council

City Characterisation Project

110 January 2009

Southampton document pt.1 19/1/09 18:50 Page 110

Southampton City Council

City Characterisation Project

January 2009 111

Southampton document pt.1 19/1/09 18:50 Page 111

Southampton City Council

City Characterisation Project

112 January 2009

Southampton document pt.1 19/1/09 18:50 Page 112

Heritage Assets

Southampton City Council

City Characterisation Project

January 2009 113

Southampton document pt.1 20/1/09 10:37 Page 113

Townscape