Chaos to Cosmos: Historical Southampton

Tuesday, 30 September 2008

Historical Southampton

Part of the city walls of Southampton

The plaque on the city wall is basically Jane Austen waz 'ere!

Jane Austen apparently went to visit friends in Hythe - did she take the same ferry as I arrived on - on 15 September 1807. Amazing I didn't bump into her!

Walk the Southampton Walls

Southampton - Tudor Merchants Hall & Westgate

Officially billed as the Tudor Merchants Hall, beautiful as it is, I just have to nit-pick. The Tudor dynasty (Henry VII to Elizabeth I) lasted for 118 years, from 1485 to 1603. (OK, if I were to be really pedantic there's a missing apostrophe too, position dependent upon whether it's one merchant or several.)

Plaque on the so-called Tudor Merchants Hall

According to the plaque and the blurb, this building was originally constructed before 1428 - possibly during the reign of Henry VI, of the House of Plantagenet - and thus well before the Tudors came into being. Even if we take the date - of 1634 - when it was demolished, moved and re-erected in its present location, that comes into the reign Charles I, the second king of the House of Stuart, the lot who followed the Tudors. And either way you look at it, Tudor it is not.

So why not call it Medieval after the era - usually interpreted by historians as the period between 1066 (the Norman Conquest) and 1485 (the accession of the Tudors) - into which it actually fits? Surely, there should be even more kudos in something being even older than Tudor? This is hired out as a venue for weddings, so maybe this is a case of history re-written by the marketing department, on account of the most famous Tudor - and serial wedding host - Henry VIII.