Southampton Facts

Southampton is immortalized in fictional and historical books as a port for famous ships and cruise liners. Thanks to its tradition of sailing and shipping, visitors to the city are treated to scenic attractions like waterfront developments, alongside older historical landmarks such as the Bargate.

Entrance to the City

One of Southampton's most attractive features is the abundance of green open space. If you enter the city on the A33 and travel down The Avenue, which was once a perilous road frequented by highwaymen, you will come to The Common, a great expanse of open land encompassing 325 acres on which to stroll, picnic and relax. Its attractions include a wildlife center, a boating lake, a...

...is a city of sterile wide boulevards, parks, and dreary shopping centers. During World War II, some 31.5 million men set out from here (in World War I, more than twice that number), and Southampton was repeatedly bombed, destroying its old character. Today, the rather shoddy downtown section represents what happens when a city's architectural focus is timeliness rather than grace, with more to see on the city's outskirts than in the city itself. If you're spending time in Southampton, you may want to explore some of the major sights of Hampshire nearby (New Forest, Winchester, the Isle of Wight, and Bournemouth, in neighboring Dorset).

Its supremacy as a port dates from Saxon times when the...