SOUTHAMPTON’S two universities plan to bring life to the city’s empty high street shops by turning them into art galleries.

University bosses have begun scouring vacant city centre shops that could soon become exhibition spaces.

They have won the backing of Southampton City Council, which has seen the number of vacant shops almost treble to 120 in the past two years.

Stephen Foster, curator of the University of Southampton’s John Hansard Gallery, revealed ambitions to open a temporary second gallery in the city centre ahead of the proposed new art complex.

“It will be a short-term let because we will eventually move, so we are now weighing up the value of doing up a place for a three or four-year return,” Mr Foster.

“I have started looking at sites unofficially. There are plenty of empty shops in the city centre and we want to be where all the people are.

“I don’t think we can revive the city centre on our own by moving into a shop, so what we will do is look for a spot where the people are now, build an audience and then take them with us when the Cultural Quarter really gets going.

Solent University’s Millais Gallery closed down earlier this year. The university is investigating the possibility of moving its visual arts classes to empty city centre shops.

“Solent is continuously reviewing its estates strategy and has a current need for space due to expansion in recent years,” the spokesman added. “One option the university has been exploring is moving some of its visual arts to an off-site location to allow space for a digital media suite to be created in its Millais building.

The East Street Centre and Vincent Walks sites are being looked at for feasibility, but both are at an early ideas stage at the moment.”

As previously revealed by the Daily Echo, the owners of the Bargate Shopping Centre are considering a plan to demolish it and replace it with a “covered shopping street”.

Part of the multi-millionpound project by developers Parkridge Holdings is to flatten the Debenhams site on Queens Way and replace it with a block of flats.

A new Debenhams would then be the anchor store for the proposed Bargate pedestrian parade.