Photograph of Upper High Street, Winchester
Taken about 1870
Of the buildings shown here only the Westgate, one of five gateways of the walled mediaeval city, remains. It dates from the 1100s, although its west face (seen here) was rebuilt in the fourteenth century. Note the five apertures of the machicolations through which objects could be dropped on attackers. The upper floor was used as a muniment room for the city's archive when this photograph was taken; it became a museum in 1898 and continues as such today.
Immediately abutting the Westgate to the left, chimneys of The Plume of Feathers can be seen. Both this and the other buildings have given way to local government offices and the road, which since 1959 has run beside the Westgate rather than through it.
The photograph was taken by Winchester photographer William Savage (1817-87) and is found in an album of his work.
