20-26 College Street, Southampton (OASIS ID thamesva1-40314)

The site is located within the urban environment of Southampton city (Fig. 1). It occupies roughly 0.25ha at the junctions of College Street and Richmond Street with Three Field Lane. To the north of the site, urban development which stretches for some 5km. To the east of the site flows the River Itchen, south is the River Test and the Town Quay, the west is Lansdowne Hill and docks. The site formerly consisted of three buildings fronting both College Street and Richmond Street. The evaluation has revealed just one feature of possible archaeological interest. The earliest feature on the site was a ditch terminal identified in trench 2 The fills within this feature were very different from the overlying deposits but no finds were recovered from it. It was sealed by layer 56, which contained finds possibly as early as the 18th century. However, when cartographic sources are consulted, it seems more probable that this layer relates to land reclamation and development that took place from the mid 19th century onwards. Other deposits and features on the site date from this 19th century and later development. On the basis of these results, the archaeological potential of the site is considered to be low.