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Southampton History Question


NorthamSteve

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Was discussing Gattis only the other day with Mrs W, she doesn't remember it despite being older than me. I recall mock tudor beams, red lamp shades and the seating area divided into lots of nooks and crannies. Am I thinking of the right place?

 

Oh yes - I knew the barmaid (from the same estate) would go in with enough for a pint and come out hours later paraletic with the money still in my pocket.

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...and you can't mention Plesteads Pies without also mentioning the neighbouring Dr Marten shop...a must for yer Pods and, obviously, yer Docs!

 

This thread is a right trip down memory lane!

 

The steak and kidney pies from Plesteads remain the best pies I've ever had; I seem to remember the steak and kidney being minced?

 

My mum used to take me in there for one (if I'd been a good boy!!!) while we were waiting for the bus home; I also seem to remember there being a barbers and newsagents in the same promenade of shops?

 

I got my one and only skinhead in that barbers when I was about 10 I'd guess; I'm 37 now so that was a long time ago; happy days though!

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This thread is a right trip down memory lane!

 

The steak and kidney pies from Plesteads remain the best pies I've ever had; I seem to remember the steak and kidney being minced?

 

My mum used to take me in there for one (if I'd been a good boy!!!) while we were waiting for the bus home; I also seem to remember there being a barbers and newsagents in the same promenade of shops?

 

I got my one and only skinhead in that barbers when I was about 10 I'd guess; I'm 37 now so that was a long time ago; happy days though!

 

Percy Horns - just round the corner.

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Come out of Debenems and walk across the road towards the park, other side of the fence is the plaque

i worked in Debenhams in the stockrooms for nearly 10 years & was told about the air-raid shelter being bombed & the mass grave. part of the stockroom was meant to join up to where the shelter was situated & may have been another entrance to it. i worked right by it,going in each morning on my own & turning the lights on was a bit creepy. on a number of ocasions i would hear noises etc when i knew 100% i was alone. was always worse whenever the park was being used by somebody like the circus.

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Got my first skinhead in there - back in oh must be '79. Percy moved to Highfield road when they built the Marlands.

 

Percy moved to Highfield Lane, i used to get my hair done there as a kid and remember him having two cuts - short, and shorter! Great old boy and really interesting for his saints knowledge, can remember saturday afternoon haircuts when saints where away listening to Saints on Solent (must've been mid 80's). He sadly died sometime in the late 90's i think and the shop is now boarded up.

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^^yep, remember Edwin Jones and Tyrell & Green, there was also Plummers, big dept store where the university cafe is now (by the Northguild opposite the fat cat.) Also that supplier that had the fantastic smell of roasting coffee when you walked past it just up the road from there near the aviary, was it called Importers?

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The Lord Louis was great.

 

Off topic slightly but has anyone else seen the aeroplane in someone's back garden in Sholing, iirc it crashed there years ago and is now overgrown? I know it's there as I recall seeing it when Google Earth first came out.

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I had one of my birthday parties in Huckleberrys - I'm sure it was downstairs.

 

feeling old.

 

It was and you are;)

 

Used to badger my dad endlessly about going there whenever we were within a 5 mile radius the bargate. In the golden fuzzy haze of my childhood memories, Huckleberries was just about the best culinary experience money could buy. McDonalds - my 4rse.

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For those interested in Southampton's history I recommend you buy Hampshire Heritage published by the Echo, which is full of various storys and include old adverts from the paper.

There are at least 4 series published.

 

I have to admit to also looking at the various webcams around the area!!

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^^yep, remember Edwin Jones and Tyrell & Green, there was also Plummers, big dept store where the university cafe is now (by the Northguild opposite the fat cat.) Also that supplier that had the fantastic smell of roasting coffee when you walked past it just up the road from there near the aviary, was it called Importers?

 

The coffee shop was the best smell ever, strange but as a kid I never liked coffee. A few doors along you had McQueen the clothes shop.

I used to get off my bus the 47 or 47A at the junction as it was called.

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In answer to the OP, I think this photo shows Mayes, next to the roadworks:

 

http://www.oldukphotos.com/graphics/England%20Photos/Hampshire,%20Southampton,%20Bargate%20and%20High%20Street.jpg

 

As an aside look at the length of the ladder leaning against the Midland Bank, the HSE would be having kittens about that nowadays.

 

Ah right, so putting that together with the OS map of raids, there was a bomb that dropped right outside.

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The Lord Louis was great.

 

Off topic slightly but has anyone else seen the aeroplane in someone's back garden in Sholing, iirc it crashed there years ago and is now overgrown? I know it's there as I recall seeing it when Google Earth first came out.

 

Not heard about that, would be interested to hear more. Used to live in Sholing myself

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The Lord Louis was great.

 

Off topic slightly but has anyone else seen the aeroplane in someone's back garden in Sholing, iirc it crashed there years ago and is now overgrown? I know it's there as I recall seeing it when Google Earth first came out.

 

In a similar vain, there is also the catermaran that was built in the garden on the corner of Avon rd & Midanbury Lane. It's been there at least 40 years. Take a look on google maps, you can also see it on street view.

It'll be a long wait for the great flood to reach the boat as it's only about 10m lower than the highest point in the city. :lol:

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In a similar vain, there is also the catermaran that was built in the garden on the corner of Avon rd & Midanbury Lane. It's been there at least 40 years. Take a look on google maps, you can also see it on street view.

It'll be a long wait for the great flood to reach the boat as it's only about 10m lower than the highest point in the city. :lol:

 

That always makes me laugh - how the hell he/she is going to get that to the water god only knows! Perhaps his name is Noah and had a premonition!

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The coffee shop was the best smell ever, strange but as a kid I never liked coffee. A few doors along you had McQueen the clothes shop.

I used to get off my bus the 47 or 47A at the junction as it was called.

 

The white building you can see to the left of the Bargate would be Bourne & Hollingsworth. Next door to that would be Squires, possibly the best men's clothes shop ever.

 

Those were the days when traffic flowed Above Bar. I seem to remember it had a strange, distinctive pink tarmac.

 

Talking of Coffee smells, Cadena Cafe anyone? Where Boots is now.

 

And can somebody also confirm that I am not going mad.

 

I remember Debenhams (possibly in its previous guise as Edwin Jones) having a temporary menagerie on the top floor.

 

I was told that during the winter months Jimmy Chipperfiled tried to save on fodder and feed for his circus animals and loaned them out to Debenhams as a small zoo.

 

I can remember being taken in there and seeing a bear, a lion and other animals in what would now - rightly - be seen as cruel and hopelessly inadequate conditions.

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In a similar vain, there is also the catermaran that was built in the garden on the corner of Avon rd & Midanbury Lane. It's been there at least 40 years. Take a look on google maps, you can also see it on street view.

It'll be a long wait for the great flood to reach the boat as it's only about 10m lower than the highest point in the city. :lol:

 

I knew that fella, he was a maths teacher at Taunton's and as mad as a box of frogs. The council (who were prepared to take on the cost to pacify his neighbours as he had flouted the planning laws) did try on a couple of occasions to try and get it on a low loader, late at night, when there was no trafic about, but it always proved too big.

 

Last I knew years ago, he was using it as a hen house.

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Got my first skinhead in there - back in oh must be '79. Percy moved to Highfield road when they built the Marlands.

 

Got my first 'skinhead' at his brother's (Eddie-short-back-and-sides-Horn) barbers across the road from our old house in Shirley.

 

Next door to that would be Squires, possibly the best men's clothes shop ever.

 

Kitted out the 1976 FA Cup Final team with those beige suits.

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Has anybody heard of a department store called May's (or Mai's or possibly mayes). It might have even been called something else.

 

It stood where the Burger King is now (the one by the Bargate) and was bombed out on at least one occasion. There are some interesting stories on this and I wanted to locate them due to a coincidental conversation with a colleague.

 

Cheers

 

Hi Steve, it was called Mays then re-named Owen & Owen in the late 70s, Mrs Toomer worked there in the accounts office when she first left school.

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In a similar vain, there is also the catermaran that was built in the garden on the corner of Avon rd & Midanbury Lane. It's been there at least 40 years. Take a look on google maps, you can also see it on street view.

It'll be a long wait for the great flood to reach the boat as it's only about 10m lower than the highest point in the city. :lol:

 

I must have walked past it a thousand times over the years.

 

God I miss living in Soton. :(

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We could all be heading to another Soul Cellar/Waggon moment.......

 

Now thats a bloody good idea, there are a good few of us now at 50 plus years of age that sit close together in The Chapel, betta blockers, simvastatan, and GTN spray in hand that go back to The Waggon, Shield & Dagger, Haymarket and many other good drinking houses of that time.

Edited by Toomer
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Was discussing Gattis only the other day with Mrs W, she doesn't remember it despite being older than me. I recall mock tudor beams, red lamp shades and the seating area divided into lots of nooks and crannies. Am I thinking of the right place?

 

I won't tell D that you said her memory had gone.:)

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When I was younger we used to drink in the Spa Tavern

 

Can anyone remember the name of the pub, that was situated in an alley behind the Spa leading out onto Southampton Precinct?

 

It has slipped my mind completely

 

The Running Horse

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Oh this is bringing back memories for me too.

 

I had Saturday jobs in both Owen Owen and Debenhams. But I can remember Edwin Jones before it became Debenhams. It was almost like a prefabricated building, put up as a temporary measure after the war I suppose.

 

When I was a little girl, my grandfather (who was in the MN with Cunard) used to take the whole family to lunch in Mayes (as it was then) when he was home on leave. I can remember thinking it was very posh to have icecream served in a little silver dish!

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I knew that fella, he was a maths teacher at Taunton's and as mad as a box of frogs. The council (who were prepared to take on the cost to pacify his neighbours as he had flouted the planning laws) did try on a couple of occasions to try and get it on a low loader, late at night, when there was no trafic about, but it always proved too big.

 

Last I knew years ago, he was using it as a hen house.

 

An old schoolmate of mine, passed away at 17, was his grandson. Never got to go round myself but always envied him for having a f**k off catermaran to play around in when he vistied his grandparents! My old dear lives just up the road from him. He is off his box that's for sure! haha! Every time they have tried to get it moved it has been the power lines that has proved the problem iirc. But he won't demolish it for no c**t.

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Now thats a bloody good idea, there are a good few of us now at 50 plus years of age that sit close together in The Chapel, betta blockers, simvastatan, and GTN spray in hand that go back to The Waggon, Shield & Dagger, Haymarket and many other good drinking houses of that time.

 

Me Mum has told me many a story outta that place. I dread to think what sort of stories she has kept from me that were assosiated with the Shield & Dagger.

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What was that pub on the corner opposite the dolphin? The Southerner or the South Western? I think the co-op bank took over the building. All the falkanders used to drink there, I remember being in there the night the invasion kicked off and they all went steaming off to jump on the next ship.

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The Dept store Mayes went broke because it was always 'Owen & Owen' (Apologies!!)

 

Worked in Owen Owen during a summer school holiday before I went to Uni in the 60's.

 

Started off in the Accounts Office with one bloke (the Manager) and about 20 women!!

 

Used to have chips 3 times a day in the staff canteen and the girls used to fight to sit with me as I was a 'novelty'

 

Hated working Thursday as it was a long day

 

Ended up working in menswear and a couple of mates used to shoplift, which was quite embarrasing

 

Around that time a lot of the big stores used to put forward big floats for the Soton Carnival which was big event at the time.

 

Actually went out with Carnival Queen for a while.

 

Also went out with a girl who used to go Ballroom Dancing with Percy Horns daughter

 

Really used to enjoy the Adam & Eve (the first Disco in town?) and bought my clothes from Gran Moda, one of the original Men's Boutiques

 

Halcyon days!!

 

Still see one or two faces from these days at St Marys

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