IT WAS once one of Southampton’s most elegant Georgian houses and it gave its name to a modern-day street that recalls the days of Bellevue House.

The imposing house, seen here in this rare archive photograph, and gardens stood near the College Place of today with grounds stretching away to Brunswick Place and the Itchen.

Its views to the river and the Bitterne hills beyond were some of the best in Southampton, hence the name Bellevue, which meant Beautiful View.

Constructed in 1768 the house was built for Dr Nathaniel St Andre, once described as “an odd and remarkable adventurer.”

He rose meteorically to become Anatomist to the Royal Household of King George I. However, his fall from favour was equally spectacular.

The doctor, who spoke fluent German, was also an accomplished dancing master and fencing instructor and a man of great personal charm, all virtues which helped him to reach the dizzy heights of London society.

His undoing came in the shape of an affair with Lady Elizabeth Capel, daughter of the Earl of Essex and wife of Samuel Molyneux, secretary to the Prince of Wales.

The lovers ran off together and eventually married but St Andre’s social standing was destroyed. He retired to the then fashionable Southampton and saw out his days at Bellevue.

Subsequent owners of the house included Sir Richard King, Colonel Gardner and Josias Jackson, a retired plantation owner from the West Indies.

Jackson offered the house for sale in 1808 and the writer Jane Austen, then living in Southampton, was among the visitors to the auction of furniture and fittings.

The house itself was bought by Admiral Sir Richard Rodney Bligh, a relative of the captain of the same name who was one of the main characters in the infamous mutiny on HMS Bounty.

In 1854 the house was leased to the Diocesan College and from then on it was a boys’ school run by a Rev W. Duncan, its last occupant, and this gave rise to the name College Place.

In 1886 the building, with its columns and impressive classical frontage, was demolished to make way for a development of less grand homes.