This three-storey yellow-brick building is situated on the corner of the Avenue and Rockstone Place. It was designed and built by local architect Samuel E Toomer in c.1840, one of last buildings designed by Toomer. The property was first let to Thomas Leader Harman, a local Liberal politician and proprietor of the Hampshire Independent. It was taken over by the Ordnance Survey in 1865 as a residence for its Director General and was subsequently known as the Director General’s House or Ordnance House. In the 1960s it was acquired by Hampshire County Council when it bought the Ordnance Survey site for use as a new magistrate’s court. For many years the property stood empty and derelict before being acquired by property developers in the 1980s and renovated for use as office premises. It is a Grade II listed building.
Avenue House
Photograph, c.1970
Further reading:
Southampton’s Historic Buildings, by R. J. Coles, p22. (HS/k)
Hampshire Buildings of Architectural or Historic Interest, by Hampshire CC, pS6. (H/i)
More Stories of Southampton Streets, by A. G. K. Leonard, p54-55. (HS/h)
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