FOR a newly married couple in the South-ampton of 1899 setting up their first home together, there really was only one place to go and that was E Hart and Co's Domestic Bazaar.

The shop was known all over Southampton as a place for a bargain, but the owners seemed to be jinxed, as on two occasions the shop was severely damaged by fire. It burned down in the August of 1871 and then again when a much bigger blaze destroyed the shop on January 3, 1912.

At E Hart and Co, couples could buy most things for their house - bedsteads, couch and two chairs, mats, hand basins, cake tins, knife board, cleaning powder, fire irons and a chamber set.

All this and much more beside would have cost the couple £15, which doesn't sound much today but back at the end of the 19th century it was a sizeable sum.

It seems E Hart and Co was quite an imposing store in Bridge Street, not far from Canal Walk, and the shop advertised itself as: "The largest showroom in the south of England.'' According to an advert for the shop at the time: "Parties about to furnish or requiring any articles for domestic use will find this a capital opportunity for making their purchases.'' The firm undertook to deliver goods free to anywhere within 30 miles by its own horse-drawn vans, and arrangements could be made for delivery to any part of the country.

Drenched In 1977, Mr E Sparks, of Vanguard Road, Bitterne, Southampton, was interviewed by the Daily Echo, as he could remember the 1912 blaze when he was a boy.

"We lived in Cross Street of the Ditches (Canal Walk),'' said Mr Sparks. "I went to watch and was standing next to a hose coupled to a stand-pipe when suddenly the hose flew off and I was drenched.

"I had a hiding from my mother when I got home, wet through.'' In the Daily Echo the fire was reported under the headline Big Bridge Street Blaze: Disastrous Fire Creates Popular Excitement'.

The story said: "The blaze caused the lower part of the town to present most remarkable scenes of excitement as thousands of sightseers, drawn by the glare in the sky, flocked to watch 70 firemen tackling the blaze which did some £25,000 damage of the storerooms of E Hart and Co.'' There was general praise for the firemen, whose first motor engine set off within 30 seconds of being called by telephone. They were followed by steam engines from Shirley, Portswood and Bitterne.

Fortunately the fire broke out when the shop was empty but it took the fire brigade more than three hours to extinguish the blaze.

Next day the street was crowded with people wanting to see the damage for themselves. Police had to be on duty from morning to night to regulate traffic and keep sightseers on the move.