Sotonopedia

The Undercroft is a vaulted structure on the north side of Upper Bugle Street and the east side of Simnel Street. Constructed in the early 14th century, it is a stone building consisting of two chambers several feet below the present street level. It was probably once part of a merchant's house. It has a groined roof with two broad bays of rib-vaulting, a fireplace and two windows, suggesting that the room was originally on the same level as the street.

Colin Platt describes it as “a fourteenth-century basement shop on Simnel Street”. The 14th century fireplace at the west end is still in a good state of preservation. The room contains some fine stone carvings, including one of a knight and one of a lady with a wimple. The medieval house above the vault was probably built of wood and no trace of it has survived. There is now a pair of two-storey council flats above. It is Grade II* listed.

The Undercroft

Photograph, c.2005

Undercroft, The

Photograph, c.1970.

Undercroft, The×

Photograph, c.1970.

Further reading:

Southampton Occasional Notes, by ‘Townsman’, p6-7. (HS/h)
Excavations in Medieval Southampton, by Colin Platt (ed), p114-115. (HS/f)
Buildings of England: Hampshire and the I.O.W., by Nikolaus Pevsner and David Lloyd, p544. (H/i)
Building Stones of Southampton, by Anthony Wadham, p55-56. HS/i)
Historic Buildings of Southampton, by Philip Peberdy, p43-45. (HS/k)

External links:

• Video about the Undercroft

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