Tudor House Museum wins £3.5. to preserve its future

Tudor House, the unique timbered building that has looked out over the city for hundreds of years, has been handed a £3.5m lifeline ensuring this important part of Southampton’s heritage will be enjoyed by future generations.

Southampton’s Tudor Merchants’ Hall will also benefit from the grant, which will be used to develop the building at Westgate into an education centre.

This is the second major grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) during the ambitious programme of repairs and improvements under way at Tudor House.

Southampton City Council will use the money to refurbish and restore the building so that it can be removed from the Heritage at Risk Register and transform the way the property tells the story of Southampton through the ages.

The Grade I listed building and Scheduled Ancient Monument dates from around 1492, although it is known that three properties did exist on the site from as far back as 1150.

Over the centuries the St Michael’s Square site has been home to some of Southampton’s most prominent citizens, including John Dawtrey, who created the building which is known today, Sir Richard Lyster, who was Chief Justice of England back in the 16th century, and George Rogers, a successful artist of the 18th century.

In 1895 the three buildings were renovated and sold to the Southampton Corporation, which opened them as the town’s first museum 17 years later.

Tudor House, which has long been one of Southampton’s most admired buildings, now stands as a rare example of a merchant’s house and one of the few timber-framed buildings in the city to survive slum clearance and Second World War bomb damage.

The museum has been closed since 2002 to enable phase one of the restoration scheme – which also attracted an HLF grant of £1.6m and involved structural stabilisation of the various buildings – to start.

This latest grant is a green light for phase two to go ahead, including an extensive range of repairs, restoration and refurbishment to Tudor House Museum and the nearby Tudor Merchants Hall, plus improved visitor facilities such as the installation of lifts, new lavatories, a cafe and a shop.

Councillor John Hannides, Cabinet member for leisure, culture and heritage, said: “This is fantastic news for the city.

“Tudor House Museum is one of our best-loved buildings and the council has been working hard to ensure that it can reopen as a regionally important museum.

“Once completed, Tudor House will be a truly magnificent attraction, not just for local people but for tourists as well.”

Michelle Davies, head of the Heritage Lottery Fund for the south-east, said: “This landmark building is steeped in history and it is held in great affection by the people of Southampton. Our grant will help ensure that future generations will get the chance to enjoy it and to explore a treasure trove of collections that chart the growth and changes of the city, its people and their museum.”

The works will enable the buildings to once again house items from Southampton’s rich collection of historical artefacts.

A host of new exhibitions and innovations such as virtual views of rooms and the surrounding Old Town across the ages will allow visitors to step back in time.

Visitors will also have the chance to make history themselves, as plans include an oral history project to record memories of Tudor House in preparation for celebrations of the museum’s centenary in 2012.

The nearby Tudor Merchants’ Hall will become an education base. The hall was originally situated opposite Tudor House but was moved to its present location in 1634.

Using money from the National Lottery, the HLF funds a range of heritage schemes from museums and historic places to archaeology and the natural environment.