Nine of us turned up despite long queues due to roadworks. Ann won with her crystal ball vision of Southampton's ruin.
22 Oct Less fortunate.
22 Oct Less fortunate.
Announced
When
it was announced that a journey to earth had been arranged on the
next space shuttle, there was a lot of interest. This annual event
was always a popular voyage and the places visited had been a
revelation to many. Over the years some of the places visited had
included Angkor Wat in Camdodia, to marvel at the temple complex and
largest religious monument in the word. It was abandoned possibly
due to flooding after the river course changed. Machu Picchu, was
an Inca citadel high in the mountains of the Andes and had been
abandoned in the mid fifteen hundreds after the empire collapsed and
Pompeii in Italy was preserved, along with its inhabitants, and
buried under metres of volcanic ash and dust for hundreds of years.
It was discovered many years later. The last visit was to Chernobyl,
a town in Russia, abandoned due to a fire in the nuclear reactor in
the middle of the twentieth century. Huge areas around the site were
also cleared due to the contamination. The reactor was eventually
totally enclosed. The destination for this trip was unannounced,
other than a city in the south of England.
Once
the trip was underway it was finally revealed that it was
Southampton. The shuttle landed on small area in front of a large
white building with a tower. It was showing signs of neglect and had
probably been quite an impressive building when it was first
constructed. It was surrounded by what appeared to be the remains of
smaller structures. There were large trees and everything was very
overgrown and wild. Moving further out from this area and fighting
the way through the trees and shrubs, they emerged into another place
that appeared to have once been an open sector but it was surrounded
by outlines of areas that had obviously been structures. These had
become the homes of the wildlife that had taken over the entire
place. There was scuttling and shuffling as the inhabitants quickly
moved out of sight. In front of them was an impressive building with
an archway in the middle. This looked to be of another era. On
either side of this were the remains of thick walls. Moving through
the arch they were again surrounded by derelict buildings with just
the imprint of the size visible. The thick walls appeared to
surround this area and there were a few buildings that seemed to have
suffered less damage than the more modern ones as they were of a
completely different design and construction. Continuing down
towards the bottom of the town they passed more of the old buildings
and finally came to the water. Along the waterfront were the remains
of large, high frameworks. These showed signs of corrosion and
looked decidedly unsafe. Again nature had taken charge and the flora
and fauna were flourishing. After viewing the city again on their
way back taking another route, they arrived at the space shuttle and
once on board were then told about the demise of this once
flourishing place.
In
the mid twentieth century it had been prospering. The port catered
for a vast range of container ships and cruise liners. The
passengers from the liners visited the city and the vibrant shopping
centre, generating additional income. Southampton had suffered badly
during the war and a new shopping centre had been built. A great
amount of the medieval city still remained inside the city walls with
several quite significant buildings. Among them the Bargate, Tudor
House, the Wool House, Gods House Tower, and the medieval vaults and
although they were built later, the Holy Rood Church that was bombed
during the blitz and the shell dedicated as memorial to Merchant
Seamen and St. Michael’s Church that survived. These were all
great tourist attractions. It was also home to a good university.
The city also boasted many open parks that were kept neat and
colourful all year round. One of the parks boasted a bird aviary
that was a great favourite with children and adults alike.
Entertainment was also well catered for with cinemas, a concert hall,
theatres, dancing venues, swimming pool and outdoor lido, an ice rink
and a speedway track. All of these were well supported, but over the
years they gradually were closed and never replaced. It seemed that
when any small shop closed the council officers could only think of
more housing and huge shopping malls. The final straw came when the
city fathers decided to charge outrageous payments for any vehicle to
enter the city and raised the parking charges to include evenings.
Residents moved out and shoppers refused to come, choosing instead to
journey to other cities that welcomed their patronage. Any shops
that had survived immediately ceased trading, as they were unable to
obtain any stock. The shopping centre became a ghost town and looters
swiftly moved in followed by the squatters, leaving the whole area
like a ghetto. The cruise companies took their business to other
ports that had something to offer the passengers, as did the
container side of the port. Soon nature took over the city and the
squatters moved out. The buildings started to crumble in the newer
part and all the modern architecture ended as rubble leaving the old
city, enhanced by the two churches, standing proudly within the walls
to come into it’s own again. The fall of this once great city two
hundred years ago was all due to man’s greed for money, surely a
lesson to be learnt.
