SOUTHAMPTON without the Bargate would be unimaginable, but just over a century ago, as enthusiasm for a new form of transport called trams was reaching fever pitch, there were calls for it to be pulled down and shipped to America.
The trouble was the height of the old building’s central arch. In the early 1900s the Bargate was the southern entrance to Above Bar and was joined to buildings on either side. It was too low to allow the newly electrified tram cars to pass through.
A special committee of Southampton Corporation, which had bought Southampton Tramway Company in 1898 having already purchased the local electricity supply company, tried to decide what to do.
After an outcry over the potential loss of the ancient monument, taken up by Punch magazine in 1899, specially adapted cars were made, with open tops and the old system of “knife-edge” seating used on horse drawn trams. These had a back-to-back arrangement on the top deck that concentrated the height in the centre.
Even so, passing through the Bargate was an interesting experience. It was the conductor’s duty to go upstairs and tell passengers not to stand up at this point while notices warned customers not to touch the electric cables that dangled dangerously only inches above their heads.
Remarkably few people were knocked out or electrocuted, but conductors were issued with advice in a 1903 manual – on what to do if the wires came down – that would make today’s health and safety chiefs rush for early retirement.
“In cases where it is necessary to remove the wire at once ... , that is If the fallen wire has wound round a horse or a person’s leg, the following simple precautions should be taken.
"(A) Do not touch the wire with the bare hands. (B) Fold up your coat and stand upon it, and if you are a smoker wrap the fallen wire with your rubber tobacco pouch, and the wire can be handled with comparative safety.”
By the 1920s, the greater numbers of passengers and the need to protect the unfortunate upper deck travellers from wind, snow and rain led to the construction of another tram car unique to Southampton. The vehicle combined low wheels with a specially rounded dome roof designed by the corporation’s Portswood works to pass through the Bargate, while the road below the arch was lowered to give greater clearance.
Workers also chipped away part of the arch, while a man was sent to the Town Quay for a bucket of mud to rub on the stones so that local people would not see that anything had been removed.
Eventually, new roads were built round the Bargate on either side and the last tram passed through the archway in June 1938. The era of the trams came to an end altogether on December 31, 1949.
There were great celebrations as the vehicle rumbled its way along its route, from the former floating bridge to Shirley.
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