Work set to start on Southampton's £132m Bargate Quarter scheme

The 1980s Bargate shopping centre and multi-storey car park are among the buildings demolished to make way for the redevelopment

Work on a £132m project to redevelop Southampton city centre is set to start in January.

The city's Bargate Quarter scheme will see four buildings go up on the site, alongside the medieval town walls.

The plans were changed to drop a 240-bedroom hotel and include more homes and less shops, following the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Developer Tellon Capital said it expected the redevelopment to be finished by the end of 2024.

The scheme in in the Queensway area will feature homes and shops

Altered plans submitted for 519 flats and townhouses, shops and garden areas were approved in March.

The proposal was originally given the go-ahead by city councillors in January 2017.

James Burchell, from Tellon Capital, said "We have got quite a complicated site and these things take quite a long time - plus we have to be sensitive to the walls.

"Unfortunately it's not quite like Lego that you can just build it up overnight."

The plans in the Bargate Quarter feature a boulevard and garden areas in the city's medieval walls

Mr Burchell added losing Debenhams from the city centre during the pandemic meant "we have had to pivot and reposition what were were planning on doing".

He added: "We had planned to create a brand new high street leading down from the Bargate all the way down to Debenhams."

The scheme also includes secure cycle spaces and electric vehicle charging points, with garden areas to make a feature of the medieval walls.

Southampton's town walls

• The oldest sections, Bargate and Eastgate, date from 1180 - alterations were made in about 1290

• They were extended following the devastating French raid of 1338. Edward III ordered that walls be built to "close the town", with the western walls completed in 1380

• The walls, including eight gates and 29 towers, stretched for one-and-a-quarter miles, with the Bargate as the entrance to the medieval town

• In the late 19th Century an idea to demolish the Bargate, as an impediment to traffic, was defeated following a public campaign. But in the 1930s the adjoining walls were removed to allow traffic to flow on either side

• Roughly half of the walls, 13 of the original towers and six gates remain, making them some of the most complete medieval town walls in the country

Source: Southampton City Council