Southampton Central Parks, Southampton, England

The following is from the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest.

Laid out between the late 1850s and early 1860s, the Southampton Central Parks: West Park, East Park, Palmerston Park, Houndwell, and Hoglands, provide a chain of public open space through the heart of the city. The parks are a good example of a mid-19th-century civic improvement scheme, possibly influenced by J C Loudon, who was engaged by the council to lay out Southampton Cemetery (see the description of this site elsewhere in the Register) in 1843.

LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING

The chain of Central Parks, altogether some 21 hectares, lies mainly to the east of the main street, Above Bar Street, which runs through Southampton city centre. The exception is West Park which lies at the north end of Above Bar and at right angles to the main north/south chain. The boundaries are variously open to the pedestrian pavements and in other places bounded by railings.

The land is fairly flat and even and today forms a large, green oasis behind the main facade of post-war shopping development and department stores which line Above Bar Street. The latter is so called because it lies above the Bargate which still stands and marked the northern entry to the medieval city. This chain of parks echoes the green approach into the city further to the north, where Southampton Common provides a similar stretch of heavily wooded, public open space running north/south along either side of the main A33.

REFERENCES Used by English Heritage

Philip Brannon, The Picture of Southampton and Stranger's Hand (no date, mid-19th century)

J S Davies, A History of Southampton (1883)

W H Rogers (editor), Maps and Plans of Old Southampton (1907)

S Kimber, Thirty-eight Years of Public Life in Southampton 1910-1948 (1949)

E Welch (editor), Southampton Maps from Elizabethan Times (1964)

R Douch, Monuments and Memorials in Southampton (1968)

A T Patterson, A History of Southampton 1700-1914, 3 volumes, (1966-75)

J M Kaye (editor), The Cartulary of God's House, Southampton (1976)

E O Blake (editor), The Cartulary of the Priory of St Denys near Southampton (1981)

N Gannaway, A History of Cricket in Hampshire (1990)

A D Morton (editor), Excavations at Hamwic 1, (1992)

Southampton Central Parks 150 years 1844-1994, booklet, (Southampton City Council 1994)

Maps

Royal Engineers, Map of Southampton, 1846 (Southampton City Archives)

OS 25" to 1 mile: 1st edition surveyed 1865, published 1870

Illustrations

Philip Brannon, Suggested Planning of Parks, Southampton, 1850 (Tudor House Museum, Southampton)

Philip Brannon, Southampton in the Year 1856 (Southampton City Art Gallery)

Philip Brannon, View of Southampton, 1861 (Southampton City Art Gallery)

Archival items

Marsh Improvement Act, 1844 (Southampton City Archives) 

Description rewritten: September 1999

Amended: June 2001

Edited: January 2004