BUILDINGS with real history and character are few and far between in Southampton's Above Bar but in years past an elegant Regency house once graced the shopping centre.

With its bow front windows Moira House stood on the corner of Above Bar at its junction with New Road but more than four decades ago it was decided, amid some local controversy, the building was torn down and replaced by a new office block.

The building had been used by the Co-operative Permanent Building Society since 1936 and had survived the bombing of Southampton during the Second World War but the owners decided it had to go as a part of a development in the 1960s.

Moira House was the city's last link with Moira Place that had existed in the area during the 1840s and which gained its name from the Earl of Moira, who commanded an army during the wars with revolutionary France at the end of the 18th century.

The army was encamped on Netley Common and the contractor who provided the troops with supplies subsequently built a row of buildings - hence the name.

A wrangle arose about 1962 when the building's owners put forward radical designs for the corner site but the Civic Centre together with the Friends of Old Southampton put up objections.

During the following inquiry an architect, in a submission on behalf of the owners, dismissed the house as "some poor object left up on the beach after the receding tide'' while the Friends of Old Southampton described the building as "one of the few surviving treasures of the age of elegance in the town.''

The government inspector regretfully concluded that despite the degree of attraction which the building retained, it was not of sufficiently high architectural or historic quality to justify preservation and the building had to go.