The Old Bond Store - 16 June 2013

Every now and then you walk around a town or city you know quite well and come across something quite wonderful. The Old Bond Store in Southampton was one such. The following text is adapted from a Wikipedia entry:

Situated on the Back of the Walls in Southampton, this was originally a bonded warehouse. Built of red brick, it has two gable ends with wooden bargeboards. On the corners are black long and short quoins. On the front of the building, there is a central round-headed unloading door with the initials "D.W.W." near the keystone; beneath that there is a round-headed arched opening with studded wooden door; "Old Bond Store" is painted on the keystone. There are also two cambered windows on the first floor with wooden grilles and a further plain window on the ground floor. On the northern side, there are five grilled windows and the outline of a round-headed arch, now filled in. Southampton City Council's survey of historic buildings says "The Old Bond Store is of architectural merit with its strong rusticated quoins brought out in a dark grey (engineering type) brick. The gable makes a significant contribution to what is extremely fragmented townscape and provides a remnant survival of the scale and character of these former lanes." "This building is considered to have strong cultural, illustrative and aesthetic values as it represents a lost building type for Southampton where such stores were once commonplace."

X20_DSCF1283