Thread by @HistoricalSoton

SOUTH WESTERN HOUSE, A THREAD:

I am immensely grateful to @Tkiddle for showing us around South Western House recently.

The iconic building is now apartments. For many years it was Southampton’s grandest hotel, which played host to royalty, VIPs, and celebrities.

The hotel was originally built in the 1860s by the Southampton Imperial Hotel Company, who leased land from the London & South Western Railway. Next to the hotel was the railway station, which had linked Southampton and London since 1840. Back then the journey took three hours.

The coming of the railway and the expansion of the docks led to Southampton growing in both size and stature. The first purpose-built dock opened in 1842, and more and more shipping companies moved to Southampton. The hotel was ideally placed to serve the booming trade.

Despite the building not being finished, the hotel opened to the public in 1867. Shortly afterwards, members of the council and some important representatives from shipping companies were shown around. They were impressed. However, there were rumours of bankruptcy going around.

The Southampton Imperial Hotel Company did indeed go bankrupt and by May 1868 the liquidators had been called in. Many of the hotel's effects were sold off in auctions.

The future of the hotel remained in doubt for a while. In 1869, whilst discussing how much a new lunatic asylum would cost, one councillor suggested the building could be used for the purpose. In 1870 a councillor said it could be used as a cotton manufactury.

The business was saved by the London & South Western Railway. In June 1870 the license was transferred to Henry Linford and William Catherwood. It became the South Western Hotel. The new proprietors were keen to advertise their new coffee room (1870) and their turtle soup (1871).

The extravagant hotel went from strength to strength, providing a luxurious service in opulent surroundings.

The South Western Hotel was certainly a local landmark.

In 1879 Empress Eugénie of France and her son Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte arrived at Southampton and had lunch at the South Western Hotel. He boarded a ship and went off to observe the Anglo-Zulu War. It was the last time Eugénie saw her son. He was ambushed and killed by Zulus.

In 1890 the violent Southampton dock strike raged on next to the hotel on Canute Road. The army was called in and the regiment's surgeon set himself up inside the hotel. One soldier was treated for a broken nose. Afterwards, the soldiers hung their gear over the hotel's railings.

Canute Road.

Here’s a troop train full of soldiers crossing Canute Road next to the South Western Hotel during the Second Boer War. The railway crossing that takes trains into the docks is still in use today.

In 1907 White Star Line moved its transatlantic service from Liverpool to Southampton, meaning their three new Olympic-class liners would call Southampton home. A new dock was built for new ships, named Olympic, Titanic, and Britannic. The hotel would host some of the passengers.

This postcard was sent to Paris by a French tourist in 1907.

Titanic left Southampton on her fateful maiden voyage in 1912. The night before, some first class passengers stayed at the hotel. They‘d have been able to see the ship from the upper floors. Guests included shipbuilder Thomas Andrews and White Star Line chairman J. Bruce Ismay.

You can see the South Western Hotel in the backgroud of this famous photograph of Titanic at Southampton.

As Southampton became the country's premier passenger port the hotel had a refurbishment, and in the 1920s an extension was built. This extension was on the railway side, and a new entrance took guests directly from the railway station into this grand lobby.

The hotel would've been known all over the world during the heyday of the ocean liner.

Many famous people are said to have been guests, including Charlie Chaplin and Laurel and Hardy. In 1928 Amelia Earhart arrived in Southampton as the first woman to cross the Atlantic in an aeroplane. She then went to a reception at the hotel with the mayor, Lucia Foster Welch.

In 1931, room 667 witnessed an attempted suicide pact. A porter found a man dead on the bed, and a woman nearby with a gunshot wound. They had made every effort to conceal their identities, checking in under false names, but they left letters. She survived but was left paralysed.

During WW2 the hotel was taken over by the military and renamed HMS Shrapnel. In the build-up to D-Day it became the Combined Operations Military Movement Control HQ. Southampton played a major role. Most of the infantry who took Gold and Juno beaches embarked at Southampton.

The hotel was slightly damaged during the Blitz.

Winston Churchill was a visitor during the war, he can be seen here heading towards the Canute Road entrance. Upon going through the door, he'd have immediately noticed this grand staircase. It is thought that he met General Eisenhower here at least once.

The war signalled the end of the building's life as a hotel. In the 1950s it was used as a recruiting office for the RAF and the Women's Royal Army Corps. During that decade, much of the hotel's furniture, carpets, fittings, and effects were sold off in auctions.

Between 1961 and 1991 the BBC occupied the building, broadcasting their local programmes from there. Cunard has also occupied it. Then, in the late 1990s, the building was converted to apartments. Thankfully the building retains a lot of the hotel’s original splendour and charm.

The former elegant ballroom is now the Grand Cafe, a popular restaurant and bar. It still has the original ballroom floor, and it is said that the Queen Mother once danced here.

Some more photos from my visit, an original lift and a skylight at the top of the lift shaft.

That’s it, end of thread! I hope you all enjoyed it. Thank you so much to everyone who has taken the time to read, like, and share the tweets. South Western House truly is a wonderful building.