Southampton and me

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Anabel 1978
Anabel 2018

One of the questions I posed in my post about why we went to Hampshire was, could we replicate the picture of me standing outside the Central Library in 1978? Answer: yes we could! A few things have changed about the building – the stonework has certainly had a clean – and more has changed about me, but I’m recognisably the same woman standing in the same place.

This was taken on the Sunday when I was exploring with John – the library was closed, but I was able to get inside the next day. More on that later: after the photo opportunity above, we set off to walk round the medieval walls of the old town, seen below.

Southampton Old Town

Bargate
John le Fleming, 1295-1336, Mayor of Southampton
Arundel Tower
Arundel Tower and Forty Steps
Cloth Hall 1634
Arcades
Wool House
God’s House Tower
Southampton and Jane Austen

In the 18th century, Southampton was a fashionable spa and seaside resort whose visitors included Jane Austen – there were several information boards commemorating this, of which I’ve included a couple of examples in the gallery above. The walls would originally have been right on the shore – in the picture with me, you can just see the Forty Steps in the background, which were constructed 150 years ago to take visitors down to the beach. The building with the arched doorway and stars in the window, the old Wool House, is now a brewery and restaurant called The Dancing Man – I can report it does a very good Sunday roast lunch (meat and vegetarian).

Tudor House

Tudor House
Tudor House and Garden

Within the walls, we visited the Tudor House and Garden, originally built in 1492 by John Dawtry. It’s an impressive little museum which tells you about the house and some of its previous residents such as a Tudor lawyer, an artist and a Victorian bonnet maker.

Monuments, murals and memorials

Franciscan Friars
Joyce and Henry Collins, 1970s
Joanna Dewfall 2013

In the gallery above are two of a series of wall plaques on the site of an old Franciscan Friary, a 1970s mural in ceramic and concrete celebrating Southampton’s maritime history, and a 2013 mural just round the corner which has a similar theme.

In the gallery below is another selection, including two memorials related to the Titanic which set sail from Southampton, and the ruins of Holyrood, known as the Sailor’s Church. This dated from 1320, was bombed in 1940, and is now preserved as a memorial garden to those who served in the Merchant Navy and lost their lives at sea.

Last Titanic survivor
Southampton musicians
Outside Sailor’s Church
Sailor’s Church

The Cultural Quarter

Guildhall at night

My clearest memory of Southampton, because I worked there, is the Civic Centre, a grade II* listed building (1939) which in my day housed the City Council, Art Gallery, and Library, as well as the Courts. The first three are still there, but the Courts have been replaced by the SeaCity Museum and the former Guildhall is an O2 venue. The whole complex stands at the centre of what is known as the Cultural Quarter.

On the Monday of our long weekend, John went off to his meetings at Southampton University and I was left to explore on my own. This was my big moment – I could look at the library where I began my career 40 years ago. It has been transformed. Although the exterior is the same, the dark interior and enclosed rooms I remember are now light and open, including the staircase up to the excellent Art Gallery which has been yarn-bombed by residents of a local Care Home. I loved it.

Southampton Civic Centre
Southampton Civic Centre
Library
Art Gallery stairs

I also visited SeaCity which had a very moving Titanic exhibition with lots of personal stories. On our walk the previous day, we passed The Grapes Public House where some members of the Titanic crew had stayed too long on the day of departure and missed the boat. The story was in the museum too.

The Grapes
Missed the boat!

There were some light moments amongst the sadness: for example, the replica of a 2nd Class cabin with a quote from a stewardess who said “It was impossibly for myself or the steward to enter the cabin to wait upon the occupants unless both of them climbed into the berth”, and the toilets. I mentioned before that the museum was in the old Courts (with a modern extension which, externally, looked like a series of ships’ prows). The Ladies and Gents were housed in the old cells’ corridor, complete with original doors.

Extension
2nd class cabin
Toilet corridor – old cells

And finally …

A couple of amusing tales to finish. How’s this for a vegetarian meal? We arrived at our hotel in Southampton just before they stopped serving food on the Friday evening. The only vegetarian option was Carrot and Avocado, described as cumin-roasted carrots and smashed avocado with coriander and lemon. I expected a dainty sort of salad-plate with baby carrots maybe, but I have never seen such enormous carrots as these! The flavours were as described and, I admit, delicious, but that’s a lot of carrot. I’m afraid I balked at the side of mashed carrot which John took to accompany his almost-vegetation-free burger.

Just before I left for the airport, I decided to track down one last memory. When I arrived to start work in Southampton I had never been there at all – my interview had been in Winchester. I lived for the first couple of weeks in the YWCA, en route to which the taxi from the station took me past the Civic Centre with its distinctive clock tower, as seen in one of the photos above. Some time later, we arrived at the YWCA. It seemed like quite a journey. The next day, I left the hostel to find out how to get a bus back into town. I walked to the corner and what did I see? That clock tower, just a few minutes’ walk down the road! I remember the feeling of shock that the taxi driver had cheated me, but was that memory real?

These days, Google keeps me on track. It seemed to think the YWCA still existed, and the general direction seemed right. When I got there, I didn’t recognise the hostel which had been completely rebuilt, but I walked to the corner and saw –

The clock tower! The taxi driver had, indeed, taken me a very long way round. What a mean way to treat an obvious stranger to the town. However, I didn’t let it colour my impressions, either then or now, and I left for home happy to have reacquainted myself with a pivotal time in my past.

England, UK ,

82 Comments »

  1. Pingback: Sheffield 2: more student memories – and a murder enquiry – The Glasgow Gallivanter

  2. Very interesting to see the then and now photos of you outside the Central Library. I remember when I visited London in 1978, many of the buildings were black like the Central Library was in your first photo. Perhaps now there is less burning of coal, and therefore it is easier to keep the buildings looking clean?

    Jude

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  3. There is so much to like about this post I hardly know where to start. You have such an eye for a good travel photo and such a great writing voice I always feel as though I’m alongside you. Probably just as well I wasn’t actually. I’ve had too many vegetarian meals similar to yours that I’m no longer particularly gracious when I receive them.

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      • It was pretty appalling. Though at least it looked better than the “roasted vegetable stack” I once got which was a collapsed pile of carrots that didn’t look particularly roasted to me. While I accepted that carrots are vegetables, i didn’t think it unreasonable to expect that there might have been other vegetables in the “stack” as well. Sigh.

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  7. oh wow what fun you had (apart from that mean taxi driver). You really explored Southampton. I wish i could have joined you on the Monday.

    By the way I have tracked down that carrot & pea recipe, can send it to you if you want 😉

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  10. Fascinating trip, and I love the stone buildings. Maybe it’s growing up in a place where nearly everything is made of wood, but I’m a total sucker for stone 🙂

    Wonder how those guys who missed the Titanic felt? Relieved, obviously, but I wonder if they felt guilty, too.

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    • I think survivor guilt would kick in, very definitely. I had a discussion elsewhere about wooden Victoriana versus our stone version. A post might appear eventually!

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  13. That meal is a disgrace (hilarious, but a disgrace). Restaurants should really be able to do a better job of catering for vegetarians by now. It’s like the time I went to a wedding and was served a plop of quinoa with pepper chunks (which I hate) in it, while everyone else was enjoying a full, hearty looking meal, and I was starving afterwards and kept desperately eyeing up the cake, mentally willing them to just cut it already.
    On a more positive note, the Titanic exhibition sounds very good, and I love all the murals!

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    • Yeah, it’s risotto that gets me. Some can be really good, I might even order one by choice occasionally, but the ones you get as the veggie option at events just seem to be bowls of rice with a few flecks of vegetables. Don’t they think we need protein? It used to bug me at Christmas dinners when I paid exactly the same as everyone else for something that cost pennies.

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  14. Much more to Southampton than I ever realised, Anabel, and this is a good read. My nearest acquaintance was in driving past en route to a little village called Christchurch, near Bournemouth. Those were my days of penury and holiday caravans. 🙂 🙂 I wasn’t the driver and we had 2 little uns in the car but it does look like an interesting place for a stop off.

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  15. What an interesting read, Anabel. I didn’t know anything about Southampton, not even its relationship to the Titanic. The museum must be fascinating. So much to see and do there, no wonder it is a popular place. And, so awesome to have lived in a city like this. Yet, Glasgow is probably bigger and more overwhelming. I’m glad you managed to get back for memory sake, and that you found some of the epic places that were important to you back then.

    Funny vegetarian meal! Especially the way they served it up.The Mexican grocery store we go to in Albuquerque, New Mexico has fresh carrots that size, or even bigger, for 33 cents a pound. I love them! 🙂

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    • Glad you found it interesting, Liesbet. There was actually more of interest in Southampton than I remembered, though the sea city museum is new of course. As for the carrots, I like them too but as an accompaniment! This was a truly bizarre dish.

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  16. These pictures are a delight to see. I am always surprised at how far back the ocean or sea becomes after a couple of centuries. I love the old Tudor home and amazing how dirty the building was from all the pollution…yuck. Also I’m not surprised one bit by the taxi driver because the6 will rip a person off if they can which sucks. The great news is how much fun you had going back and enjoying everything including those huge Bugs Bunny carrots!

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  17. What fun to be able to recreate that photo and find your way around. I had to laugh at those enormous carrots presentation left a lot to be desired.

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  18. So interesting! I hate that you were cheated by the taxi driver… for some reason, I would have expected him to treat a young girl from out of town nicer. Sigh. That Titanic museum looks fascinating. Good job recreating that photo!

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    • I probably looked very green! The Titanic exhibition was really well done. I was surprised how easy it was to recreate the picture. They even still had the same notice board behind me!

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  19. Looks a nice tour around the place. I had to refresh my memory of Jane Austen books as separate from the Bronte sisters. Not read them but did enjoy S and S and P and P as modern film versions. Even seen P and P with zombies recently. Very different but not as good a film :o)

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  22. Hi Anabel – it looks to have been a delightful interlude and so clever of John to have business down there … so you could spend a few days reliving previous memories! Loved your photos and the note about the sea being ‘right there – back then’ … the library looks as thought it’s been amazingly brought up to date … and those ‘washrooms’ – what fun … I’m so pleased you were able to visit … cheers Hilary

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  23. Such an interesting trip for you back to Southampton to relive some old memories! The memorial at Sailor’s Church is very touching. It’s funny how some touch your heart more than others and this one is poignant – maybe because an anchor and church ruins aren’t normally junta-positioned with one another.

    The model of the 2nd class cabin on the Titanic make me think – good grief, if this small space is 2nd class, I can’t imagine what 3rd class looked like!!

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  24. Another great post and photos, Anabel. Have you put any of your travel posts/photos into a book? If not, you should consider this.
    I love the opening photos where you have replicated your picture from the Central Library. Ironically, the building looked older in 1978 than it does now. And you look just as wonderful — if not more so!

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  25. Well I never realised Southampton had old town walls and building. Always had the idea it was a modern city. You learn something every day!

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  29. I never even knew Southampton had an old town let alone medieval walls! I think the only time I have been there was during our summer holidays when my mother would take me to the shops with her if it was a rainy day. Always with the instructions “if we get parted, make your way to the entrance and wait there for me”. As for the taxi driver, maybe there was a complicated one-way system? Shrewsbury has one like that, you have to go all around the town to get somewhere that could be literally across the street!

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    • You are very generous! I don’t remember a one-way system at the time, but I wasn’t a driver then so might not have noticed I suppose. I was surprised how extensive the walls were: I don’t think I can have explored them much when I lived there.

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  31. Good post and lovely photographs. You’re right, that was a bit mean of the taxi driver. I loved your evening meal – Carrots, with mashed carrot and Avacado – I know, I know, but I would be tempted to look at the dish and say “What’s up Doc?” My nephew lives in Southampton but I have no idea where. Last contact I had with him and his family was when Adam was still in the Garden.

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    • Really, you are that old? 😉

      I remember the taxi driver as an older man (probably younger than I am now, of course). I was a 21-year old Northern Lass and he saw me coming.

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  32. I nearly fell off my perch laughing when I saw the vegetarian dinner. OMG, obviously the chef has no imagination 🙂 We always try and look like we have been to a city previously whenever we use a taxi which thankfully is not often. Anabel, it did look like you had an interesting time!

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  33. Lovely trip down Memory Lane with you Anabel – so interesting to tour round Southampton whilst weaving it into your past. My daughter is vegetarian – I don’t think she’d have been too impressed with the meal option! The Titanic story sends shivers down your spine – they must have gone through such a gamut of emotions being devastated first to miss the boat then devastated when they heard what happened to the others.

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    • I was really surprised – obviously they subscribe to the rabbit-food view of vegetarianism. I can hardly imagine what the men who missed the boat felt – relief, followed by survivor-guilt. The exhibition was really good in that it gave you real people to follow which made the loss much less abstract.

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      • Yes I always find exhibitions following people’s stories fascinating. I wonder what happened to those 2 men whether they lived long lives or were tormented by guilt. Rabbit food certainly sums up the menu in this case by the sounds of it!

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  34. Glad you had such a good nostalgic walk in lovely old Southampton. I have walked the areas you write about so well, but after reading your report I think it’s time I returned and looked at things again. When I was in Belfast last I did the Titanic walk there too, even bought the tee-shirt which read “It was all right when it left here” but I lost this to a Thai friend who loved the slogan.

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    • Thanks Mari! I used to work with a young woman from Belfast who had a similar (and forthrightly expressed) opinion about the Titanic. I have never been to Belfast – it’s another place John goes to for work occasionally and someday I must accompany him.

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  35. It’s funny, Anabel. I always enjoy your travelogues but this time I felt an especially strong sense of accompanying you on your trip. I suspect that’s partly from the way you’ve written about what you saw and did, and partly because I would have absolutely stopped at many of these same places and commented on many of the same things. The Titanic crew members who missed the boat are a perfect example. It must have been difficult to convince them of the evils of drink after that lucky escape!

    Your vegetarian meal is hilarious, but I can’t imagine calling it a meal or finding it delicious. I’m much more in tune with John’s meal choices.

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    • Thanks Karen, glad you enjoyed your virtual trip to Southampton! Maybe because I was searching out so many personal things it made it more involving. As for the meal – well, it did taste good but should have been a small accompaniment to something more substantial. I’m glad I wasn’t too hungry, or relying on it for my daily protein intake.

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