Old & new

 

I spotted these modern looking flats off of St Swithun Street, sitting next to the Green Man pub. The top floor has some has some very nice coloured glass.

Modern

Winchester is not all old buildings, these modern flats here overlook the rear of the Hambledon shop that I posted a couple of days ago.

****I am away at the moment - back Friday****

Jungle Fever!

At the back of St Peter's car park is an unusual house. To me it looks like a modern twist on a safari lodge. I think the house/flats were quite expensive, and won possibly won an architectural award, but the view...I've seen better!

Pillars

Peninsula Square in Winchester used to be an army barracks although it was originally destined to be a palace for King Charles II. It is now private housing. I think it would be a beautiful place to live, but rather expensive.

Chess

Within the cathedral there there are a number of carvings, monuments and memorials. This one of the chap with his chess board particularly caught my eye. My son was once chess champion of his school, the chess tournament went on so long that they eventually ran out of time and so decided the result of the game by rock-paper-scissors!

Tudor House

This building is in St John's Street, it's a 16th Century Tudor House. It was once used as a barracks for Cromwell's men during the English Civil War, this elegant half timbered building is now two separate private dwellings.

William Walker

In the early 20th century Winchester Cathedral was in serious danger of collapsing. Its foundations had been built on a timber raft lying on a bed of peat and over the centuries compression of this peat had allowed the cathedral to sink and crack.

Trenches were built to start the underpinning process, but no sooner were they dug than they filled up with water due to the high water table under the cathedral. The solution was to send a diver down to underpin the sagging walls. It was a huge task and a diver William Walker was chosen for the job. Alone he went down into the dark, cold waters beneath the cathedral almost daily for 6 years from 1906-1912 eventually placing 25800 bags of concrete, 114900 concrete blocks and 900000 bricks to shore up the walls.
 William Walker was awarded the MVO (Member of the Royal Victorian Order) by King George V who said that he had "saved the cathedral with his own two hands".
 Unfortunately William died of Spanish flu a few years later. In the cathedral is this small statue of him in his diving suit. He also has a pub named after him just round the corner from the cathedral.

Mercure Hotel

The Mercure Wessex Hotel in Winchester is not the most architecturally pleasing building....

but what it lacks in beauty it makes up for in the great views of the Cathedral that it offers to its guests

Hyde Abbey Gate

Hyde Abbey Gate is one of the few remaining parts of Hyde Abbey in Winchester. The gateway is 15th Century and built of flint and stone. This gate once controlled access to Hyde Abbey. The main buildings of the Abbey were destroyed following the Dissolution of the monasteries in 1539.

The Great Hall - Winchester

The Great Hall Winchester