This was the town's official warehouse for storing and weighing tin in the medieval period. It was located on the north side of Westgate Street immediately inside (east of) the Westgate and comprised the ground floor of a now vanished building of which the upper storey constituted the Linen Hall. Southampton was an important centre for the tin trade in the late medieval period; from 1450 the town held the monopoly of Cornish tin, and in 1453 all the tin in the town was appropriated by Henry VI for his own use. Englefield in 1801 states that there was still a building in Westgate Street bearing the name Linen Hall and Tin Cellar, but it seems to have gone by 1849, as Philip Brannon could find no trace of such a building.
Further reading:
Picture of Southampton (1849), by Philip Brannon, p52. (HS/h)
A Walk Through Southampton, by Henry C. Englefield, p58-59. (HS/h)
Southampton Archaeological Society Bulletin, No. 16, p2. (HS/f)
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