Southampton

This excellent collection of over 200 old photographs offers a wide-ranging pictorial commentary on many aspects of the life and development of Southampton from Victorian times to the Second World War. These old images provide some fascinating highlights on everyday life and the social history of Southampton people, recalling past pleasures, events and occasions; giving glimpses of townscapes, transport and shipping of yesteryear. Some curious byways of local history are explored for the first time, including the storm over a teahouse on the Common which produced heated council debates in 1909-12; the olddly named ‘Nine Ants’ concert party troupe who went to Mesopotamia in 1918 and the ‘Bath Chair Man’ of Regents Park during the First World Way. The author has assembled an appealing new selection of evocative and significant images, most seen here in print for the first time. It is a collection that will intrigue all who would like to know more about Southampton’s recent past and how the city came to be what it is today.