Welcome to See Southampton Heritage Guides
See Southampton Heritage Guides – Sightseeing tours, tour guides and accessible tours
Guided Tours
See some of Southampton’s wonderful architectural, historical and cultural heritage with our tour guides.
Private Group Walks
Book a walk for a group or private party, tailored for your interests, with a qualified local history expert.
Accessible Guided Tours
Guided tours are for everyone! We offer a sign language interpreter, voice amplifiers, ramps, lifts, and accessible toilet facilities.
More history in Southampton than you ever imagined!
See Southampton Heritage Guides is a team of qualified local heritage experts and tour guides, delivering an entertaining programme of walks and talks for visitors, cruise ship passengers and local residents.
Events & Tours
Discover Southampton’s History - Guided Tours
90 minute guided walks, including visits to Southampton’s towers and vaults.
- Days: Saturdays and Sundays from 1st Oct to 31st March 2025. New season walks then commence on Sat 5 April 2025.
- Time: 1:30pm (10.30am / 1.30pm from Sat 5 April 2025).
- Location: Meet at the Lions on the north side of the Bargate (SO14 2DJ)
- Cost: £7.00 per adult, (£10 from 5 April) accompanied children free. Payment by cash or card, in advance (to secure a spot) or on the day if spaces still available.
Explore the hidden history of Southampton – from the Romans to the Normans, to the city’s years as an elegant spa town, and on to the
amazing part the city played in the Second World War as a military port and home to wartime industry. Visit the medieval walls and wine vaults, and hear the stories of Southampton’s most famous ships (including the Titanic) and most famous residents (including tales of Jane Austen, in the 250th anniversary year of her birth).
Southampton’s tour guiding associations, See Southampton Heritage Guides and the Southampton Tourist Guides Association are working in partnership in 2025/26 to deliver an exciting programme of Southampton History Walks, supported by Go! Southampton. Click here to view brochure PDF
The team from See Southampton Heritage Guides will be delivering the 1.30pm walks in October and December 2024 and February 2025, whilst the 1.30pm walks in November 2024, January and March 2025 will be delivered by our colleagues from the STGA.
Additional programme of walks 2025-2026:
Talk & Walk: Georgian Times & the Spa Town – Saturday 28 March 2025, 14:00
Jane Austen in Georgian Southampton – 6 April, 4 May, 8 June 2025, 11:00
The Westgate
Visit the historic 14th Century Westgate, one of the main gates leading into medieval Southampton. Henry V with his band of brothers on their way to the Battle of Agincourt in 1415 passed through West Gate, as did the Pilgrim Fathers in 1620, ready to board the Mayflower at the busy, bustling medieval West Quay.
Explore the fascinating story of the Mayflower as told in the Westgate, along with exhibitions commemorating the 80th Second World War anniversaries of VE-Day (8 May 1945) and VJ-Day (15 August 1945), the 70th anniversary of the launch of Southampton’s heritage steamship, SS Shieldhall, and the 250th anniversary of the birth of Jane Austen in 1775, a famous resident of Southampton.
Free entry, open Sundays 10:00-12:00 & 13:00-15:00.
See Southampton Sunday walks from April – September will conclude at the Westgate, allowing a short time to visit.
Southampton's Hidden History
Let us reveal the hidden history of your city! Southampton history walks depart the Lions by the Bargate at 10.30am and 1.30pm on weekends between April – end September, and then at 1.30pm during the autumn and winter. Hidden History walks are being staged by See Southampton and Southampton Tourist Guides Association, supported by Go! Southampton.
Talks at Portswood and Woolston Libraries - FREE!
A series of Wednesday evening talks covering the history of Southampton is being given by See Southampton guides and Bevois Mount History at Portswood Library during 2025. There is free admission to the talks, which commence at 7.30pm. Dates for Woolston Library talks will be announced shortly.
Portswood Library (SO17 2NG) talks programme, arranged by The Friends of Portswood Library:
12 March – Southampton’s Parks, Ally Hayes & Wendy Stokes
9 April – Victorian Cruising, David Hornsby
14 May – Southampton’s Nationally Renowned Carriage Makers, Godfrey Collyer
11 June – The Shieldhall – 70 Years Alive and Still Steaming! Nigel Philpott
9 July – Significant Southampton Mayors and the First Lord Mayor, Ally Hayes & Wendy Stokes
13 August – Jane Austen’s Southampton Connection, Jack Wilson
10 September – Isaac Watts’ Statue, Ally Hayes & Wendy Stokes
8 October – More Stories from the Stonemason’s Yard, Godfrey Collyer and Peter Shawyer
If you would like to book a talk, our team is always happy to provide guest speakers on a range of subjects. Contact us for details.
Jane Austen 250 and VE/VJ Day 80th
2025 sees many events taking place to mark the 250th anniversary of the birth of Jane Austen. Our rota walks will reference Jane’s connections with Southampton, and visit a number of the locations she would have known well – and we’re also running special, dedicated Sunday morning Jane Austen in Georgian Southampton tours, starting at 11am from the Westgate, Westgate Street, on 9 March, 6 April, 4 May and 8 June 2025.
Weekend See Southampton walks will also mention the role that Southampton played during the 2nd World War, and will stop at the famous American Wall / D-Day Wall throughout 2025, close to the Westgate Exhibition. There remains an opportunity to view our free-to enter 80th anniversary D-Day exhibition at the Westgate, and to learn of the 80th anniversary of VE/VJ Day in 2025.
See Southampton's Accessible Guided Tours
We ensure that our Accessible Guided Tours are accessible to those with (visible or non-visible) physical and learning difficulties, and are wheelchair and mobility scooter friendly.
"From Parks to Port" - See Southampton's map with Accessible Trail
See Southampton have produced a map that details accessible places of interest, and includes lifts, toilets, ramps and facilities that can be easily accessed by wheelchair and mobility scooter users.
Award
Beautiful South Award
See Southampton has won a prestigious accolade at the Beautiful South Awards for Excellence 2023.