CASH-strapped Southampton City Council bosses have put another historic building on the market.

The Tory-run council is offering to lease the Grade I listed God's House Tower in Town Quay for at least 20 years for use as offices or and an exhibition gallery.

It is currently the home of Southampton's museum of archaeology whose exhibits are moving to Tudor House and the city's new Sea City Museum, which is set to open in April next year.

The museum displays artefacts from prehistoric, Roman, Saxon and medieval Southampton.

Part of the building, which stands on the south-east corner of the town walls that had once encircled medieval Southampton, dates back to the 13th century.

It was the town jail until 1855 then used as a storage depot by the Southampton Harbour Board. It was converted into the Museum of Archaeology 50 years ago.

It comes after the Daily Echo revealed that Southampton's Titanic Museum is being sold off to become a pub or cafe.

The Grade I listed Wool House, which houses the city's Maritime Museum, is the only surviving freestanding mediaeval warehouse in Southampton, built in 1415 as a storehouse for wool to be exported to Europe.

Under a minimum 20 year lease the building could be-come an office, a pub, cafe, restaurant, art gallery, or an exhibition centre.

The council says it will conserve the building while bringing it back into the commercial life of the city.