The Grapes, on Oxford Street, opened in 1855 and by 1912 was the local for Titanic crew. On the morning of 10 April that year the three Slade brothers — Alfred, Bertram and Thomas, all signed on as firemen — were drinking here with John Podesta and William Nutbean. They left around 11:50, reached the White Star dock at 11:59 as the gangway was being drawn up, and the officer refused to lower it. The men who took their places died in the sinking. The Grapes did not, and has been quietly trading on the fact ever since.
Oxford Street is the reason you'd eat in the Old Town. Visit Southampton calls it the home of independent dining, which is a tidy way of saying it's a short run of restaurants where you can decide what you want after you've arrived. Kuti's has done Indian food here for over 35 years. The Oxford Brasserie, one of the oldest restaurants in the city, does cassoulet and steak frites; Medbar handles the Mediterranean end with calamari and chicken souvlaki. Beity, La Regata and 7Bone fill in the rest.
The whole quarter sits inside the medieval walls. Half of Southampton's mile-and-a-quarter circuit still stands, one of the more complete town-wall circuits in England, and the Bargate — the Norman north gate, built around 1180 — is still marooned in the middle of the modern centre. Everything north of it is called Above Bar, because that is literally where it is.
Two pubs argue about which is oldest. The Red Lion on High Street was first licensed in 1552 and is known as the Court House, for the tradition that the 1415 Southampton Plot conspirators were tried in its galleried hall before being executed by the Bargate. The Duke of Wellington on Bugle Street was rebuilt as Bere House in 1494 and renamed after Waterloo. Neither has conceded.
The Dancing Man Brewery brews four beers on site inside the Wool House, a 14th-century warehouse the Cistercian monks of Beaulieu put up after a French raid. It held Napoleonic prisoners of war, some of whom carved their names into the roof beams, where they still are. A few doors along, the Pig in the Wall does charcuterie and wine in a gap knocked into the ancient wall itself.
For the livelier end, Bedford Place has Lakaz Maman, the Mauritian street kitchen run by Shelina Permalloo, the 2012 MasterChef champion. Cari, gato piment, grilled octopus, braised mutton, and a bottle of Piment Limón hot sauce on every table. It's often named the best restaurant in the city.
When you need air, Southampton Common runs to over 365 acres with a boating lake, a paddling pool and ancient woodland. Mayflower Park sits on the water by the cruise terminals, front-row for the big ships coming and going. Southampton Central reaches London Waterloo in about an hour and twenty; the Red Jet crosses to Cowes in 23 minutes, and the New Forest is a short drive west.
Jane Austen lived on Castle Square from 1806, glad to be out of Bath. Of the house she wrote that the garden was reckoned the best in town, and planted it with currant and gooseberry bushes.