Avondale House, 33 Carlton Crescent, Southampton. Archaeological Recording (SOU1706)

The aim of the project was to make a record of elements of the building exposed by conversion to flats. The building is Grade II listed and was built in 1833 for James Hawkins Thring, a successful wine merchant. Later tenants included Mrs Eliza Purvis, widow of Admiral John Child Purvis (1746-1825) a contemporary of Nelson. She subsequently bought it and spent the rest of her life there in some style, with a live-in staff of seven -butler, footman and five female servants. The building had been re-organised and extended in the 1920s, when it was turned into offices. In the 1950s a basement car park was inserted, and it had most recently been a pub. The recording work was confined to the attic area and a fireplace on the first floor. The work in the attic area revealed an original flat roof and lead rainwater system. The flat roof was presumably built to prevent the roof ridge from spoiling the classical lines of the upper part of the building, but it was later replaced with a pitched roof, probably due to water ingress, between the wars when practicality overcame style. The brickwork to the rear of the fireplace suggested that there had been a hob to either side of the fire to allow hot food and drinks to be prepared in the bedroom