Southampton has seen immense change since Turner’s time, not least in the reclamation of large areas of the Test foreshore north-west of the old town walls for cruise-liner docks and other commercial developments.
2 Bombing in the Second World War and subsequent rebuilding left little of the older fabric intact, except for some sections of the medieval walls and gate-towers. Turner’s views are characterised by two slender church spires, which appear to be those of St Michael’s, which still stands, and nearby Holyrood (or Holy Rood), of which only the tower survives intact. There is a view including these two spires across water in the 1795
Isle of Wight sketchbook (Tate
D00418; Turner Bequest XXIV 12), as well as a study of the Bargate (Tate
D00416; Turner Bequest XXIV 10). The later
Guernsey sketchbook includes some slight studies (Tate
D23541,
D23571,
D23573,
D23604–D23605,
D23607,
D23644; Turner Bequest CCLII 11, 27a, 28a, 45a–46, 47, 65a). Compare also Edward Dayes’s
Southampton from the Grounds of Cranbury Park (Tate
D36346; Turner Bequest CCCLXXI D), the sepia watercolour by G.W. Gent (Tate
T08908), and William Westall’s 1814 view for the
Picturesque Views on the Southern Coast of England (Tate impressions:
T05322,
T05323).