Tudor House Museum reopens in Southampton


It’s the quintessential style of English architecture. Tudor buildings simply ooze a sense of history and charm.

The only problem is, they’re a real pain to keep in shape. That’s what the curators of the Tudor House and Garden in Southampton, England, found out during their nine-year restoration. The house, shown above, dates back to the 1490s and while it was obviously well built, five centuries had taken its toll. The house was beginning to shift, threatening to destabilize the whole structure.

Now the whole building has been given a makeover and equipped with state-of-the-art interactive displays to explain what daily life was like back then. The museum reopens today.

If Southampton is not on your itinerary, London has a good Tudor building as well. Prince Henry’s Room, shown to the left, is also being remodeled and will open sometime this year. Built in 1610, it’s a miracle this place is still around. It survived the Great Fire of 1666 and the Luftwaffe during World War Two. It makes for a nice picture if you’re passing along Fleet Street. The restoration crew let me take a peek inside and I can tell you the interior is as attractive as the exterior. We’ll be sure to cover it when it finally reopens.

[Photo of Southampton house courtesy Wikimedia Commons. Photo of Prince Henry’s Room courtesy Wikimedia Commons]