This could be a posting you might want to skip .... unless you have an interest in history and old walls and buildings. It's also an unfortunate feature of this site that I cannot post photos among the text. If you are really interested, it might be better to print it and then read while going through the photos and videos I've posted here.

It's now also 4 days later and I still have to catch up on Portsmouth and two days in Dorset.

Southampton dates to the Stone Age. There are over 90 listed buildings and 30 ancient monuments in the Old Town, including medieval watch towers and dungeons, an array of churches, fine timber-framed Tudor houses, inns, and hole-in-the-wall pubs.

Despite heavy bombardment during WWII, much of Southampton's historic heritage survived the blasts. This is in complete contrast with Portsmouth which is just 20 minutes down the road. It has very little of the original town left.

This is the fourth time I've walked and photographed the old town. The first time with Ches and every other on my own as I tend to take my time and poke into back streets and lanes. It certainly paid off this time, as I met a guy who let me into one of the hidden underground vaults.

I always start at the Bargate (formerly the main gate of the city) - possibly Southampton's most iconic structure, built around 1180. I then walk some of England's best-preserved medieval Town Walls, nearly half of which were built in the 15th century. Because I'm running out of time to write this blog before we head west to Dorset, I'm going to edit some of the notes I've used before and which come form various local guides. The photos I'll post should make it easier to follow.

Bargate is an impressive medieval gatehouse that was built around 1180. Located in the centre of High Street, it was the traditional entrance and main gateway to Southampton and is praised as the finest and most complex gateway in England. It was built with flint and stone. In 1280, builders added imposing drum towers on the north side. Then, in the early 1400s, the north front was added.

At some point during the 1400s, Southampton began using Bargate as a prison. Then, during the 16th century, Southampton's court leet started meeting in the Bargate. The court leet is a centuries-old tradition that still continues in Southampton where there is an annual court leet, an event that dates back to at least 1549. The historical ceremony allows citizens to take matters of concern to the council. Courts leet have been around since 'long before 1066′ - and despite their function changing over the centuries, their main purpose has remained constant: to give the people a voice. However, the vast majority of courts leet - historically run by the lords of an area across the country - don't exist anymore, with only a couple of dozen or so remaining.

The Bargate was used as Southampton's guildhall and market for centuries. Visitors can still see the vaults where merchants stored wine.

The fabled lion sculptures were added during the 16th century. The lions are thought to symbolize the legend of Sir Bevois, who founded Southhampton. Sir Bevios is the subject of many heroic legends, including a legend that tells of Sir Bevois slaying two lions to protect a princess. The lions were restored in 2020, and again have bright red tongues.

There are 11 heraldic shields on the Bargate's north side. Unfortunately, the original shields decayed with time, and many attempts have been made to restore them.

In 1899, 1914, and 1923, council members debated demolishing Bargate to accommodate increasing road traffic. Instead, the town council decided to separate Bargate from the town walls, so pedestrian can walk around it and into the old town. During WWII, Bargate was used as an air-raid shelter.

I walk through it and around it to take in as much as possible before heading back outside the walls and around to Arundel Tower.

This is a 60-foot-tall half drum tower that was initially constructed in the 13th century. It was first known as Corner Tower and offered defensive forces a commanding view out to sea. It was re-named Arundel Tower after Sir John Arundel, governor of Southampton Castle in the 1300s.

During the 16th century, shoemakers, curriers, saddlers, and cobblers were charged with the tower's defence, and the tower became known as the Shoemaker's Tower.

Before the 20th century, its location near the sea has caused saltwater damage, and the tower has needed constant repair over the centuries. In fact, early illustrations show seawater lapping at the tower's foundations. Its exposed location near sea winds earned the tower the nickname "Windwhistle".

In the 20th century, a land reclamation program increased the size of the docks, and the sea is now hundreds of metres further away.

While you can climb the Arundel Tower and enjoy views of the town wall, I've never bothered since the first time as it really only gives you a view of the overdeveloped shopping precinct that is closing in on the old town.

I walked along beside the walls to Catchcold Tower. This tower was built in the fifteenth century to carry cannon and you can still see the three-gun ports. Considering its exposed position, jutting out onto what was once a shoreline, it's not difficult to imagine how the tower got its name. An anti-aircraft gun was placed on top of the tower during the Second World War and this represents the last time Southampton's medieval walls were used for their intended purpose, which was to defend the town.

Catchcold Tower on the western stretch of the walls. This area here would have once been a shore.

There are some steps just beyond Catchcold Tower. Known as 'Forty Steps', they were added to the wall in the Victorian period to allow access from the top of the wall down to the shore.

I continue along the bottom of the wall to a gate that was part of Southampton Castle's own quay.. The king's wine (amongst other things) could be brought here from France and then stored in vaults beyond the gate, which would have been within the castle's grounds. On top of the wall there is an ugly 1960s apartment block. This was built on the site of the royal castle, which dated back to the Norman era but was demolished by the mid-seventeenth century. There is still an intact vault on the other side of the wall here, as well as the open remains of another.

How lucky was I? The door to the open vault (with the iron walkway overhead) was open and a guy was cleaning up litter. I'd walked up the stairs and he began a conversation about the history of the vaults and that they were used to store barrels of Bordeaux wine. The king levied a tax of one barrel for every ten landed. He'd holidayed in Australia a few years ago and so he offered to open the door to the "intact vault" for me. Inside I made a brief video as he explained how antiquarians in the 1800s had made an error in identifying some of the fixtures and had removed some of them. The cynic in me thought that they had done so in order to remove them and take them home. Whatever …. It was great to see the inside of the vault and while several couples appeared at the doorway, he didn't invite them in, so I felt spoiled.

At the end of the wall is what's left of the castle's thirteenth century garderobe tower (which is a nice way of saying 'toilet block'). The tide would have definitely come in handy here as it would have been the high tide that provided the "flush". At the top of the stairs is a metal walkway. The walkway takes you above the remains of one of the castle's vaults. Looking at the tower block, you can see how close the vault and quay were to the castle itself. At the end of the metal walkway is a path toward the mock-Tudor pub called the Juniper Berry.

The Juniper Berry dates to the 1930s and it was built on the site of an older pub. This area was part of Southampton Castle's square, and it is called - you guessed it - Castle Square. In the early nineteenth century, the Marquess of Lansdowne (who had donated the statue of George III) decided to build his own castle on the site of the old one. Between 1806 and 1809, Jane Austen lived in Castle Square. Her house was probably located where the Juniper Berry is, for the top of the medieval wall ran along one side of her garden. Where I was standing to photograph Juniper Berry, between it and the walls, was the site of Jane Austen's Garden, and I was walking where she would have walked. Her view over the wall would have been drastically different. In 1841, Sir Henry Charles Englefield described this view over the water as 'enchanting'. After the land reclamation of the twentieth century, the view today is totally different.

At this point, I completely lose track of the usual tourist route around the walls. That's because it the point at which they often take you well inside the walls to explore some of the old buildings. I kept ducking back outside the walls and then in and around the old buildings. They miss somethings and I others. Whatever … I went around Juniper Berry and then down a narrow set of stairs, back outside the walls for 50 metres or so. Here I discovered an amazing feature of the camera in my new Samsung phone. When photographing an information board in front of say "West Quay and Biddle's Gate", it recognises that there is writing, so it gives me the option of saving it as a word document. Now I wish I had taken up the offer as I try to find notes to use here.

I'm now back outside the walls at the Arcades and you will see two arches. This wall belongs to the remains of a twelfth century Norman dwelling, with two Norman windows above me. There are quite a few blocked doorways. This house is called King John's Palace and it has absolutely nothing to do with King John. It did, however, belong to one of Southampton's most prominent citizens in the fourteenth century, the merchant John Wytegod who was Mayor of Southampton in the 1350s and 1360s. Wytegod's house was on the quayside, giving him direct access to the town's West Quay.

The Arcades were built in the fourteenth century after French and Genoese forces raided the town in 1338. The invaders ran riot, burning buildings, cutting down townsfolk, and looting whatever they could. At this time, the shoreline here wasn't as well defended as other parts of the town, and the raiders had no difficulty in storming the town. King Edward III was furious, and he ordered the town to be fully enclosed within high stone walls. The Arcades thus came into existence.

However, when the Arcades were built after the French and Genoese raid, this house was incorporated into the new defences. The doors were bricked up and arrow slits were added for the defence of the town.

I retraced my steps back inside the walls where some of my favourite old buildings are located. Through Biddle's Gate or Castle Gate is Bugle Street. It's name comes from the Latin word "Buculus," or young bull. It is sometimes called Bull Street, but it also refers to the bugle-horn, made initially from young bulls' horns.

The street runs from St. Michaels Square to the Town Quay. Upper Bugle Street was originally made up of Fish Street and Pepper Alley, connecting north from St Michaels Square to Simnel Street.

The street was one of the originals laid out within the city's stone medieval walls.

Most of the other homes and businesses along the route were built between the 16th and 18th centuries. It has been said that Bugle Street is the best historic street in Southampton. It's here that I always go to see the Titanic pub. It was originally called the Endeavour pub and frequented by crew and passengers who sailed on the Titanic, so renamed the Titanic in 2012, the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the ship.

A street running off Bugle St is Simnel St. Half of Simnel St. is a small dead-end street, and the other half is a pedestrian walkway. In the 1770's it was the site of Mr Martins Saltwater Baths. Women would travel here for their health and poets and artists were inspired by the panoramic views. By the late nineteenth century, it was one of Southampton's most notorious streets. It was in the heart of a slum, packed with tumbledown dwellings, cheap lodging houses, rough pubs, and brothels. Drunkenness was commonplace, with booze-fuelled brawls happening at all hours. Women used the cheap lodging houses to carry on the world's oldest profession and criminals preyed on the vulnerable. There were violent robberies, stabbings, the lot. This was your classic Victorian slum. It was cleared away in the 1890s and the area today is slightly more peaceful today.

As I walk up the street, St Michael's Church comes into view and Tudor House emerges on my right. I think I've taken more photographs of this building than any other tourist.

St Michael's Church was founded by Norman settlers around the year 1070 and there are parts of the church tower that date to that time. During the French and Genoese raid of 1338, some townsfolk sought refuge inside this church. Some of the raiders forced their way in and slaughtered those who sheltered here.

The church has undergone many alterations since then, but of the five original post-Conquest churches that were located in the Old Town area, St Michael's is the only one that remains.

Opposite St Michael's Church, across the peaceful square, is Tudor House. Thanks to the efforts of a chap named William Spranger, this building survived the slum clearances of the late nineteenth century. It had been built between the years of 1491 and 1518, incorporating some older buildings, and Spranger spent years restoring the building, which had been previously occupied by a bookbinder and a dyer. By removing the stucco façade, Spranger tried to return the house to its original Tudor style and once he was done, in 1912, the restored building opened as a museum. Spranger also saved King John's Palace, which can be seen properly by visiting the museum.

A little further down Bugle St., I come to one of my favourite little clusters of old buildings. On the left is the Duke of Wellington pub, down the lane beside it, the Merchant's House and the foundations of another five 13th century houses and then back up the lane and opposite the Duke of Wellington pub, the Westgate and Westgate Hall.

The Duke of Wellington is a classic British pub. The building was built in 1220 on top of Norman cellars and vaults. The first resident was Benedict Ace, one of the town's first mayors.

It wasn't until 1494 that the building became a public house. It was bought by Holland-born brewer Rowland Johnson, who called it Brew House. Then, of course, he started brewing his own ales and thusly began the city's first brewery.

In the 1600s, the pilgrims would have passed this pub on their way to board the Mayflower.

The pub has changed names several times over the years. It was first the Brew House, and then it became the Shipwrights Arms in honor of the many shipbuilders who patronized it. Finally, in 1815 it was named for the Duke of Wellington in honor of his victory in the Battle of Waterloo.

The Medieval Merchant's House is a restored late 13th-century building in Southampton. Built in about 1290 by John Fortin, a prosperous merchant, the house survived many centuries of domestic and commercial use largely intact. German bomb damage in 1940 revealed the medieval interior of the house, and in the 1980s it was restored to resemble its initial appearance and placed in the care of English Heritage, to be run as a tourist attraction.

The house is built to a medieval right-angle, narrow plan design, with an undercroft to store wine at a constant temperature, and a first-story bedchamber that projects out into the street to add additional space. Listed as a national historical monument, the building is architecturally significant because, as historian Glyn Coppack highlights, it is "the only building of its type to survive substantially as first built".

Back up the lane and across Bugle St. is a large square and the city walls again. Here is the Westgate and beside it, Westgate Hall.

Westgate Hall was originally located in St Michael's Square. The first floor was a cloth hall and underneath it was an open arcade, which was the town's fish market. In 1634, the building was taken apart and moved to its present position, where the arcade on the ground floor was walled up, creating the hall we see today. It was restored in the 1970s and today it is used for things like lectures and weddings.

Next to Westgate Hall is the fourteenth century Westgate. This gate allowed access to and from Southampton's West Quay, which was situated on the other side of the gate. Earlier, outside the Bargate, we stood where the Southampton Plot conspirators were beheaded after their trial in Southampton Castle back in 1415. Henry V had been present at the trial and afterwards he returned to Portchester Castle. That month, his army, which had been assembled at Southampton, boarded ships at West Quay and set off to invade France. Agincourt awaited them. As invasion weighed upon the minds of those men, they would have marched through this very gate to board the ships that would take them to France and death or glory.

Just over two hundred years later, in 1620, the Pilgrims were in Southampton. Some of them had made their way to Southampton on Mayflower, and they stayed in the town whilst they waited for their fellow travellers to arrive from Holland on board Speedwell. Speedwell arrived and in August 1620, the Pilgrims left Southampton together and set sail on their historic voyage to America. They would likely have walked through the Westgate on their way to the quay to board the ships that would take them to America. Speedwell was far from seaworthy, and the party were forced to go into Dartmouth for repairs. They tried again, sailing a couple of hundred miles out into the Atlantic, but again they were forced to turn back, this time returning to Plymouth, where Speedwell was ultimately abandoned. Their next attempt, using only Mayflower, was successful.

In 1620, the year the Pilgrims departed Southampton, seven men were fined for leaving 'tymber, planckes, masts & other wooden stuffe' lying around here but now, four hundred years later, aside from the replica wooden ships set into the pavement, you'd do well to find any seafaring activity here. In the 1920s and 1930s, around four hundred acres of land was reclaimed when the Western Docks were created. Much of what you can see from this side of the Westgate was once water. If you look to the right, you'll see the stretch of walls along which we have already walked. The water followed these walls up to Arundel Tower, after which the shoreline curved to the north-west, all the way to Southampton Central railway station and along to Millbrook.

Next to the Westgate is a boutique hotel, this was once a pub called the Royal Standard. The building was constructed as a private residence in the early nineteenth century, but it became the Royal Standard in 1866.

I walked towards the roundabout and followed the wall as it curved round the corner to the left. This is the south-western point of the old walled town, and now walked the town's southern boundary, past the Mary Ann Rogers Memorial and, slightly further along, the Mayflower Memorial.

The SS Stella left Southampton in 1899 on a routine voyage to Guernsey but before reaching the Channel Island she hit a submerged granite reef and sank. The 'women and children' protocol was followed, but one stewardess named Mary Ann Rogers refused, instead offering her life jacket to somebody else. She also refused to board a lifeboat in case it became over capacity. Rogers died in the sinking whilst trying to help others and this memorial to her heroism was unveiled in 1901. Twelve years later, on the 293rd anniversary of the Pilgrims leaving Southampton on Mayflower and Speedwell, the Mayflower Memorial was unveiled by the United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom. On the memorial you can see various plaques that have been added over the years, including some by the descendants of the Pilgrims themselves. The United States Army also added one in 1945.

Next I came to a white building; the former clubhouse of the Royal Southern Yacht Club, which was built in 1846. Today, unfortunately, it stands empty. Next to it is the Wool House, which was built in the fourteenth century to store wool before export. Over the years it has had many uses, including a jail for French and Spanish prisoners of war, a garage, a workshop, and a maritime museum. Today, it is an excellent microbrewery and pub called the Dancing Man. If you do treat yourself to a beer or a coffee, do look out for the graffiti left by those prisoners. Ches and I have visited here on a few occasions.

Over the main road, which was once a quayside, is the old gatehouse to Southampton's Royal Pier. The pier itself was opened in 1833 by the Duchess of Kent and her daughter, Princess Victoria (who became Queen Victoria four years later), but it closed in 1979 before being mostly destroyed by fire. This gatehouse is now a restaurant called Kuti's Brasserie. Mr Kuti has been serving award-winning food in Southampton since 1986 and in 2019 his restaurant won the prestigious Tiffin Cup competition at the House of Commons in London.

I crossed French Street, just past the Wool House and up beside one of the old quayside warehouses known as Geddes Warehouse built in 1866. There are gardens and seats here, so I sat and ate lunch. Drew always cooks far to much for dinner and we now had three nights of leftovers. I had packed a light lunch of chicken wing and potato salad.

On down Porters Lane and on the left, is Canute's Palace. Canute was King of England from 1016 until 1035 and it is said that during this time, he wanted to prove to his courtiers that, whilst he was a king, he did not possess the power of God. He did this by commanding the tide to stop. Obviously, the tide came in and his feet got wet. Southampton is one of the places that claim the location of the story of Canute and the tide, but the story is apocryphal, and it probably didn't happen. This is not Canute's palace, but it is very interesting in that it is the remains of a Norman merchant's house, dating from the twelfth century. I've photographed it many times, however this time there were spring flowers covering the lawn at the end, so it made for a special photograph this time.

At the end of Porters Lane, on the right, is the partially reconstructed remains of part of the town's Watergate. This gate allowed access from the bottom of Southampton High Street (with the Bargate being at the top of the High Street) to Town Quay. The gate itself was fairly wide and low with rooms above it. It had fallen into disrepair by the early nineteenth century and it was demolished in 1804 but part of the gate's western tower was incorporated into a building which became a hotel. When the hotel was demolished, the stonework was partially reconstructed, and this is the last remaining vestige of the town's Watergate.

At this point, without a map and memory deserting me, I missed going further around the walls and seeing Gods House Tower and Gate. Belatedly, I remember that we had always gone there and then turned back up town beside the remnants of a monastery. Instead, I tuned up the main street that leads to Bargate. There are interesting sites along this road, including the Medieval Mayors Wine Vaults. It looks as though this is an ongoing archaeological dig as much of it is covered over by roofing and I could only look into the gloom from the street. Claret from Bordeaux was Britain's favourite drink in the medieval period and importing it and shipping wool made Southampton wealthy.

I continued to Bargate and with the temperature well into the mid-20s and very humid, I trudged my way home.