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A glance at the map gives some idea of the strategic maritime importance of SOUTHAMPTON , which stands on a triangular peninsula formed at the place where the rivers Itchen and Test flow into Southampton Water, an eight-mile inlet from the Solent. Sure enough, Southampton has figured in numerous stirring events: it witnessed the exodus of Henry V's Agincourt-bound army, the Pilgrim Fathers' departure in the Mayflower in 1620 and the maiden voyages of such ships as the Queen Mary and the Titanic . Unfortunately, since its pummelling by the Luftwaffe and some disastrous postwar planning, the thousand-year-old city is now a sprawling conurbation with little to recommend it for anything more than a fleeting visit.
Core of the modern town is the Civic Centre , a short walk east of the train station. Its clock tower is the most distinctive feature of the skyline, and it houses an excellent art gallery that's particularly strong on twentieth-century British artists such as Sutherland, Piper and Spencer (Tues-Sat 10am-5pm, Sun 1-4pm; free). The Western Esplanade , curving southward from the station, runs alongside the best remaining bits of the old city walls . Rebuilt after a French attack in 1338, they feature towers with evocatively chilly names - Windwhistle, Catchcold and God's House Tower - the last of these, at the southern end of the old town in Winkle Street, houses a Museum of Archeology , though lack of funding has meant that this is currently indefinitely closed except to groups by prior arrangement (tel 023/8063 5904). Best preserved of the city's seven gates is Bargate , at the opposite end of the old town, at the head of the High Street; an elaborate structure, cluttered with lions, classical figures and machicolations (defensive apertures through which missiles could be dropped), it was formerly the guildhall and court house.
Other ancient buildings survive amid the piecemeal redevelopment of the High Street area. The oldest church is St Michael's , to the west of the High Street, with a twelfth-century font of black Tournai marble. The nearby Tudor House Museum , in Bugle Street (Tues-Fri 10am-noon & 1-5pm, Sat 10am-noon & 1-4pm, Sun 2-5pm; free), is an impressive fifteenth-century, timber-framed building, its grand banqueting hall and reconstructed Tudor garden outshining the sundry exhibits of Georgian, Victorian and early twentieth-century social history. Down at the southwest corner of the old town, by the seafront, the Wool House is a fine fourteenth-century stone warehouse; formerly used as a jail for Napoleonic prisoners, it now houses a Maritime Museum (same times as Tudor House Museum; free) with accounts of the heyday of ocean liners, and includes a huge model of the Queen Mary and various mementoes from the Titanic . The museum also offers the opportunity to listen to the recorded voices of various survivors of the Titanic tragedy relating their experiences, while Titanic obsessives can follow a " Titanic Trail" walking tour around Southampton - ask for the free pamphlet at the tourist office.
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