Building MPM560 - BUCKINGHAM HOUSE

Originally a c16th century timber-framed house, re-faced and extended in brick during the 17th and 18th centuries. Evidence of timber-framing, a c15th/16th century framed ceiling and wooden panelling dating to c1700 was observed during a building survey in 2008. The building has formerly been known as The Greyhound Public House. George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, was famously assassinated in the house by John Felton on the 23rd August 1628. Currently in use as a 'Ye Spotted Dogge' private hotel and bar (2019).

Formerly known as: The Spotted Dog HIGH STREET. House, later public house, now offices and flats. C16 or early C17 timber-framed house, altered and refronted late C17 or early C18 and later rendered. Plain tile roofs, No.10 1/2 with brick stack to right. No.10 1/2 of 2 storeys and attic, 2 1/2 bays. No.11 of 2 and 3 storeys, 2 bays. No.10 1/2 has projecting 1/2 bay on left with recessed door of 6 panels (2 flush, 2 fielded and 2 glazed), set in moulded architrave; first floor blind. On right, 16-pane sash below rusticated round arch from which rises pilaster separating 2 round-arched first floor sashes with glazing bars and similarly treated arches; coped parapet; 2 flat-roofed dormers. No.11 has 2-storey bay on left with door as No.10 1/2 but with heavy carved brackets supporting cornice; blind 1st floor. 2 sashes to each floor of right-hand bays, in flush wood architraves, on ground and 1st floors of 12 panes with bracketed cornices over, on 2nd floor of 9 unequally-hung panes. 1st floor sillband. Eaves cornice to right bays below parapet. INTERIOR: the interior has panelling and partly exposed timber framing. A plaque on the wall records that "In this house George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham was assassinated by John Felton, 23 August 1628". (Lloyd DW: Buildings of Portsmouth and its Environs: Portsmouth: 1974-: 37 AND 38). [1]


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The earliest evidence for a building on the site of Buckingham House is a reference to 'a brewery granary and garden' called 'le Greyhounde' licensed to a Richard Palshyd in 1523. Popinjay's map of 1584 shows a large house with five gables occupying the present site, with the owners name recorded as 'Chadderton' (John). The house was later bought by Captain John Mason in 1626, and George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, was famously assassinated there by John Felton in 1628.

An archaeological building recording undertaken by Southampton Archaeology Unit in 2008 revealed evidence of several phases of construction. The earliest part of the building is located at the north end of the street frontage, where evidence of timber-framing was observed behind the brick facades of the superstructure of the western range, and a substantial framed ceiling of a possible late-15th or 16th century date was exposed at ground floor level. These features possibly represent elements of a pre-17th century timber-framed house that was re-faced and extended in brick around 1627. A drawing of 1627 shows a further block to the north that was demolished in 1760 when 10 High Street was constructed. A brick extension with a central chimney stack was added to the south of the building around 1700. This may have replaced an earlier timber-framed southern cross wing. Several ground and first floor rooms throughout the whole of the building (north and south blocks) had almost identical wooden panelling on the walls. The panelling in the first floor rooms had been painted with the same decorative scheme, suggesting it may have been installed when the brick extension to the south was added c1700. The building was divided into two properties c1800, becoming 10 1/2 and 11 High Street. An extension to the rear of the original north section of the building was destroyed during the Second World War. This was completely rebuilt in the late 1940s, and no evidence survived to suggest an original date for this structure or how it related to the rest of the building. [2]

<1> Historic England, The National Heritage List for England (Index). SPM35.

<2> Smith, M P, 2008, Archaeological Building Recording at Buckingham and Felton Houses, 11 and 12 High Street, Portsmouth (Unpublished document). SPM322.