Medieval Merchant's House, Southampton

The Medieval Merchant's House in Southampton is a carefully restored late 13th-century building that stands as a testament to the city’s medieval past. Built around 1290 by John Fortin, a prosperous merchant, the house has remained largely intact despite centuries of use. It gained architectural significance after sustaining damage during the German bombing in 1940, which revealed the medieval interior, leading to its restoration in the 1980s by English Heritage.

The house is built following a traditional medieval right-angle, narrow plan design, with a functional undercroft used for wine storage, ensuring a constant temperature. The upper floor features a projecting bedchamber, a common medieval practice to increase space. Notably, historian Glyn Coppack highlights the building as "the only building of its type to survive substantially as first built," marking it as a Grade I listed building and a scheduled monument.

Facing French Street, the house showcases a mix of Bembridge and Purbeck stone walls and a timber frontage. The ground floor includes a reconstructed medieval shop front, a central hall with a 14th-century Flemish chimney, and an inner private room. The hallways, though traditional, reflect a medieval design challenge of poor lighting. The undercroft, originally designed to store barrels of wine, features an 18th-century brick floor.

The first floor houses two chambers, with the eastern one projecting into the street—similar to medieval homes found in Shrewsbury, Tewkesbury, and York. Marks from the original builders can still be seen on the timbers of this room. The western chamber retains elements of its 19th-century modifications, including a Victorian-era ceiling. The roof has been reconstructed with Cornish slate, mimicking the original medieval design.

Today, the Medieval Merchant's House serves as a fascinating glimpse into medieval life, managed by English Heritage as a tourist attraction.