Sotonopedia

The Hound Well was a well situated within the town's eastern common field, to which it gave its name - Houndwell. The well was situated a little to the north-east of the junction of modern Pound Tree Road and Sussex Road. A building was erected over the well which for many centuries was the town's washing place. The name occurs many times in the topography of the town:

Houndwell Buildings
An early 19th century name for what is now Cook Street, running from Houndwell Place to ‘Bag Row’, i.e. East Street.

Houndwell Cross
This formerly stood at the intersection of Above Bar Street and Canshut Lane, probably on one of the corners. It seems possible that in very early times Canshut Lane was continued on the line of Pound Tree Road.

Houndwell Cut
A 19th century passage, with a covered entrance running north off the north side of East Street to join St. George's Street, thus approximating to the line of Queens Buildings.

Houndwell Field
One of the medieval town's common fields lying between Sussex Road and Vincents Walk on the west and Palmerston Road and Queensway on the east. The southern boundary was the town ditches - approximately where Hanover Buildings now runs - while north the boundary passed through the modern-day North Front. It is now one of the Central Parks.

Houndwell Gardens
A 19th century street running from East Street to Park View.

Houndwell House
The town's washing house erected over Hound Well.

Houndwell Place
Incorrectly identified on some Ordnance Survey maps, it runs from St. Mary's Place to
Cook Street and St. George's Place, i.e. east of the south stretch of Hoglands.

Houndwell Street
The medieval name for that part of Above Bar Street that passed alongside Houndwell
Field, near modern-day Pound Tree Road.

Further reading:

Medieval Southampton, by Colin Platt, passim. (HS/h)
Southampton Occasional Notes, by ‘Townsman’, p92. (HS/h)

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