context - southampton above bar_tcm63-367806.pdf · through the port increased in the early...

Southampton City Council

City Characterisation Project

January 2009 77

09 Above Bar

Context Above Bar is the main route to the north from themedieval walled town. The road is oriented north-southalong a slight ridge and has a gentle gradient falling fromnorth to south. Only part of Above Bar Street is withinthis character area with the northern section beingincluded with CA8: Civic Campus.

The central parks (Palmerston and Houndwell) form acontinuous, abrupt, green edge along the eastern side ofthe character area. The western edge follows the line ofthe survival of the immediate post-war rebuilding butincludes earlier fragments of the early nineteenthcentury development of the Above Bar area. Part ofPortland Terrace has now become redeveloped to thesame scale (and indeed is considered a part) of theWest Quay character area (CA33). The northern edge ofthe area is less distinct, and is marked by the junctionwith Civic Centre Road. The southern edge runs alongBargate Street with character area CA10: BargateEnvirons and Hanover Buildings to the south. There is ashort length of CA11 the West Gate Town Walls andCastle on the south west.

Archaeological evidence shows that there has beenprehistoric, Roman and, of par ticular note inSouthampton, early Saxon occupation in this area.However, the key period of development in the areanorth of Bargate was in the late Saxon or early Normanperiod continuing until the thirteenth century at least, asthe construction of defences in the early thirteenthcentury resulted in at least some movement into thedefended area.

The Georgian period saw Above Bar develop into a well-to-do part of the town with fine terraced houses built forgentry visiting the spa and, later, when passenger trafficthrough the port increased in the early nineteenthcentury. The buildings of Above Bar were largelydestroyed by bombing during WWII.

GrainAbove Bar Street is an historic axis although almostcompletely rebuilt following war time destruction.Consequently the street has a regular profile with a rela-tively wide and low street section of 1 : 2.5 : 1. Sidestreets are generally much narrower and more enclosedwith a section averaging about 1 : 1.2 : 1. Plots andBlocks: overall a relatively regular grain of narrow tomedium width (6-10m) frontages and deep plots (30-40m). This pattern is interspersed with some wide frontunits. Building lines are continuous and regular with astrong consistency throughout the character area.

ScaleThe main range of buildings on the east side of Above Bar

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Street vary between two and three storeys and have beendesigned to create some variation of building heights,otherwise building consists of flush-fronted facades. Therecent entrance to West Quays on the west side of AboveBar Street introduces a large scale in a three storeyheight canopied entrance. This provides some accent ina very regular street but does impact on views southtowards the Bargate. The over-scaled post modernfacade immediately north and south of this would be verydamaging if its scale and styling were repeated. The westside of Above Bar Street is more consistently three tofour storeys and higher in individual buildings. The westside is consistently higher than the east.

The tallest building is Marlands House (1963 byArchitect Oliver Carey) a slab block facing Civic CentreRoad at the northern extremity of the character area atsix storeys but with lower two storey sections wrappinground to form part of Above Bar Street.

UsesThe predominant land use is retail, with some minorcommercial uses on the side streets. Upper floors havesecondary retail and commercial uses and there islimited evidence of under-use of upper floors.Residential uses are negligible.

By day Above Bar Street is a vibrant busy pedestrianthoroughfare with associated activities including streetvendors and entertainers. This character changes some-what in the evenings where it maintains a footfall but itis not a particularly inviting place to stop.

Public RealmAbove Bar Street is pedestrianised for half of its lengthwith wide pavements elsewhere forming the main areasof public realm. There has been a recent programme ofinstallation of street furniture of a contemporary design– especially at the southern end of Above Bar Street, andthese have generally brought the quality of the street upto a good level.

Soft landscaping is mainly located on the north-eastcorner of the area – the interface with Palmerston Park,with four impressive plane trees lining the pavement atthis point. Otherwise the area is predominantly hardlandscape except for a line of four smaller trees, justnorth of Pound Tree Road.

ConnectivityThis character area is very well connected to most partsof the city centre, with a clearly legible Main Street/SideStreet structure with good visual links to other areas.

ViewsThe Bargate can be seen looking south for the entirelength of the section of Above Bar Street in the char-acter area. The building confidently terminates the

01 Above Bar Street commercial core (looking towards The Bargate)02 Contemporary architecture and street furniture – Above Bar

Street03 Early nineteenth century townhouses, Portland Terrace – a valu-

able survival of pre-war Southampton

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2

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street and provides a key landmark for the resident andvisitor alike.

There is no visual relationship with the water, except fora minor view of the distant docks to the west, acrossBargate Street.

A more constricted view of the park can be seen fromPound Tree Road. A strategic view of the spire of StMary’s originates from Above Bar looking east alongHanover Buildings (when the trees are not in leaf). Afurther strategic view to St Mary’s Church spire origi-nates from the north-west corner of Palmerston Park asit meets Above Bar Street looking south-east across theparks. The campanile of the Civic Centre is clearly visiblealong much of Portland Terrace to parts of the westernedge of the character area.

Building typesPredominantly medium to large floorplate shops, on twoor three floors. The north side of Portland Streetconsists of remnants of early 19th century town houses,mainly converted to commercial premises. Two notablepurpose-built banking/insurance office buildings withtheir signature styles and architects (in the case of thePrudential Building) can be seen interspersed with thepost-war reconstruction.

Architectural qualitiesThe post-war rebuilding of Southampton is perhaps bestillustrated in Above Bar Street with much of the architec-tural quality being derived from the heroic rebuilding andstructuring of streets which were completely destroyed.Long facades are articulated with projecting shopfrontsand set back and projecting flat bays. Windows areregular, often with stone or concrete mullions givingthem added emphasis and contributing to the verticalemphasis and rhythm seen in many of the facades.Spandrel panels contrasting with the main walls andexpressed structural frames in places also help maintainthis pleasing rhythm along the length of Above BarStreet. There is some modern curtain walling of contem-porary materials and some double height facades instructural glazing. Generally these have been executedto a high standard and add interest and incident to thestreet, though should not be repeated on a large scale.

Individual remnants and small groups of earlier buildingsare key survivals. The Regency north side of PortlandStreet is a particularly important and intact survival asis the terrace to Portland Terrace with its Greek DoricPorticos with triglyph friezes. The late Victorian terra-cotta Prudential Building by Alfred Waterhouse is a richand lively facade punctuating a well-mannered but on thewhole unexciting townscape at the northern end ofAbove Bar Street.

Two other notable remnants of architectural merit are

the small Victorian warehouse on the south side of OgleRoad and the Portland Stone Italianate former bank onits north side on the corner with Above Bar Street. Thelatter forms a key landmark in views from the park up toAbove Bar Street

There is a good modern building to the corner of PoundTree Lane and Above Bar Street.

Heritage AssetsThe area is considered to possess a high degree ofevidential and historic value due to the potential torecover archaeological evidence from the prehistoric,Roman and early Saxon periods, finds and features fromthese periods having been recovered within the area.There is also potential for evidence of occupation datingfrom the late Saxon/early Norman period. Forming partof the settlement that developed on the ridge after theshift away from mid-Saxon Hamwic to the east, this areais regarded as being of national importance although itlies beyond the area bounded by the town wall. The arealies within a Local Area of Archaeological Importance toreflect this potential to yield significant evidence for pastactivity in the area.

The entire north side of Portland Street is Grade II listed.The survival of an entire street of early nineteenthcentury houses in the centre of Southampton, given thedevastation inflicted by bombing in the Second WorldWar, is of high historic and aesthetic significance as arethe surviving early nineteenth century houses toPortland Terrace. Their change of use from residential tocommercial – mostly office accommodation has notdiminished their design quality in townscape terms,although in the case of the latter, post war buildingshave somewhat compromised their setting and formerscale. There is an attractively detailed mid-nineteenthcentury commercial building in Ogle Road also Grade IIlisted. This building symbolizes the cultural values of theperiod where vast sums of money were being made byindividuals and companies taking advantage of thesuccess of Southampton as a commercial port.

The 1950s range on the east side of Above Bar south ofPound Tree Road is locally listed. This range is aestheti-cally significant as it best reflects the quality of replace-ment buildings forming the commercial core of the cityimmediately post-war. Its confident use of traditionalmaterials; Portland Stone combined with traditionallyproportioned openings but arranged in an overtly modernstyle mainly achieved by the grouping of windows givesthis group a strongly defined architectural composition.

There is a locally listed building to the corner of PortlandStreet and Above Bar. This building in its architecturalstyle and high quality of materials reflects the affluenceof the city in the mid-nineteenth century. Its is all themore prominent and eclectic in a townscape radically




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changed post war given this building all the more signif-icance despite only having local listing status.

MaterialsThere is a wide palette of materials in this characterarea. Historic materials include stucco, terracotta andPortland stone in very limited amounts. Post-war mate-rials comprise: mostly Portland stone with someexposed pre-cast concrete, and reconstituted stone.There is an extensive use of structural glazing to recentdevelopments plus exposed structure (steel) in framingand forming brise soleil.

ConditionGenerally very good condition of buildings and publicrealm. See historic assets for conditions of these.

OwnershipGenerally larger scale corporate ownership. Some smallerscale ownerships in side streets in other buildings.

InterventionSuggested areas for Improvement.

n Dead frontages facing the Central Park character area(CA7).

n The resurfacing of Portland Street commensurate withthe setting of a valuable survival of the earlier historiccharacter of this part of the city.

n Consider a shared surface treatment for the uppersection of Above Bar Street (above Pound Tree Lane)to the edge of the character area.

Key design principlesn A clear policy on shopfront design particularly fascias

which should be administered consistently alongAbove Bar Street. Shopfronts should be of consistentmaterials and design in certain groups of buildings.

n A clear policy on signage design which is presently inplaces out of scale with the general human scale ofthis shopping street.




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Heritage Assets



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Townscape

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