The Southampton Drink Map of 1878 was inspired by the Reverend Basil Wilberforce – rector of St Mary’s - and published by the St Mary’s Church Temperance Society. An ephemeral publication, designed to be handed out to the public in general and to sailors disembarking from ships in the docks in particular, only one copy, in Southampton City Archives, is known to survive. The intent was to highlight areas of temptation - red spots on the map indicating licensed public house and red stars indicating alehouse - and to identify – by means of shading – a teetotal sanctuary on the far side of Brinton’s Road enforced by a covenant against public houses and alehouses. The campaign was soon quietly dropped as the map, far from being an aid to teetotalism, became a vade mecum to those seeking the pleasures of alcohol.
Further reading:
'The Drink Map of Southampton' by George Campbell in Hampshire Field Club and Archaeological Society Newsletter, no. 48, Autumn 2007, pages 20-22: a copy of the map is given on page 21. (H/f)
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