REVIEW:

Southampton in the 1980s: Ten years that changed the city

By Garth Groombridge

SOUTHAMPTON has found an excellent chronicler of the recent past.

Mr Groombridge’s knowledge is second to none about the 1980s and 90s; too recent to be history and yet not current affairs.

His book is a tour of the city from the docks through the city centre and out to Northam and St Mary’s and the way it has changed and continues to change.

Most pages show a before and after photo of a city scene with exceedingly well-researched details about its evolution.

Mr Groombridge chronicles the development of Ocean Village, its decline and recent transformation into luxury housing. The rise and fall of the Bargate Centre is also covered.

He is a connoisseur of the seemingly mundane and the book is packed with photographs from the 1980s that are humdrum (crowds walking in Canute Pavilion inside Ocean Village) but today rapidly acquiring historic interest.

The author does not just take photos from the usual locations but goes around the back, to the cul de sacs, alleys, car parks, back street pubs and houses about to be demolished.

He is not afraid to express opinions. “Town Quay, especially compared to its brief late 1980s heyday, is dreary and dead.”

He writes of how the planners have targeted the city’s mainly working class and lower middle class populations “wishing to impose order and modernity upon what they saw as unregulated lifestyles and haphazard chaotic development.”

Giving a fresh look at a place that most readers would consider they know well, the book is highly recommended.

The 96-page paperback is published by Amberley Publishing and costs £14.99.

Andrew Napier ****