SOUTHAMPTON’S Commercial Road was constructed during the reign of King George III, towards the close of the 18th century.

It was one of the main roads of the Georgian era that ushered in a new system of road-making together with the means of paying for upkeep.

Today it is a busy street, often thronging with theatregoers attending The Mayflower theatre, or people out enjoying the area’s many bars, pubs and restaurants.

However, back in the early days there was a toll bar at the junction of Commercial Road with Above Bar.

The road construction was seen as being of great importance to the town, as it was then, because it represented the new way from the town to the west.

There is a puzzle of names about here as an early Victorian map, for instance, names the building at the junction looking down Commercial Road as Cheapside, a name that suggests that at one time a market of some sort may have been held there.

Nearby Cumberland Place was probably named after the Duke of Cumberland, son of George III, who visited Southampton and apparently appreciated the surrounds.

Another suggestion is that the name was in favour of the Duke of Cumberland, third son of George II, the victor of Culloden and thereafter nicknamed ‘The Butcher’.

Southampton took sufficient interest in that battle to plant commemorative elms in The Avenue.

Brunswick Place also had its association with a regal past. It seems there was a kind-hearted lady living in Southampton in the reign of Charles II named Katherine Wulfris, who when she died in 1665 gave the yearly rent of an orchard in Southampton, estimated to be worth at that time 40s (£2), to be used by the churchwardens to place in service within the town and to provide “clothing and placing out one poor maid to some apprenticeship on service”.

The property came to be known as Giddy Bridge. What the name is derived from is unsure, but Giddy Bridge included the site of part of the present Brunswick Place.

Many people forget the existence of Brunswick Square, situated on the south side of Bernard Street.

The present area is different from earlier times and today it is merely an access to business premises.

Mention of the name Brunswick in connection with the square and place in Southampton recalls a third link in the city.

Canute Road was at one time crossed by sections of the railway line that led from the Terminus Station into the docks.

The westerly one is still used now and again, however there was an easterly track that also went into the port.

When it was in use anyone standing by the line might have heard the shunter call out when a goods or passenger train for the docks was due, “Where are young going to put her?” and the reply, perhaps, “On the Brunswick”. The Brunswick is now unused, but why the name?

Well the answer might just be found in the fact that on the succession of Queen Victoria, in virtue of the law that excluded females from the throne of Hanover, the long connection between the crowns of England and Hanover established by the Georges came to an end.

Still the queen was a descendant of the House of Brunswick and so the name remained associated with the royal family.

It is thought that the first passenger coach to pass over the pieces of track into the docks was one in March, 1863, drawn by three white horses and containing Edward, Prince of Wales, and his beautiful bride Princess Alexandria, on the way to their honeymoon at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight.

The coach had been specially sent by the London and South Western Railway and so from that day on it was known as ‘The Brunswick’.