King John’s House in Romsey is a thirteenth-century building, part of which is now a tea room, pretty much across the road from Romsey Abbey. The Tudor part of the house - the beamed part you can see in the photo - is a beautifully wonky old house on Church Street. King John's House is the house behind it, and is thought to have been a high-status medieval building in its heyday. One guide book on Hampshire’s old buildings states that the name of the building and its association with the notorious monarch came from a visit made by King John’s daughter before she married the King of Scotland. This must be John’s daughter Joan, who married Alexander II of Scotland in York in 1221. However, The New Antiquarians: 50 Years of Archaeological Innovation in Wessex rightly states that this can’t be true as dendrochronology analysis on one of the beams there – the principal tie beam – dates it to 1256. As Joan died in 1238 it casts massive doubt on this being the property associated with the princess and future queen. In addition, King John died in 1216, forty years before the building’s important structural beam was hammered in. It’s likely then that its association with John is apocryphal, in a similar way to King John’s Palace in Southampton. The ‘palace’ in Southampton is actually a now-ruined merchant’s house but does date from the late twelfth century. However, it is no longer believed to have been a palace, even less one owned or visited by King John.
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| King John's House in Romsey, Jo Romero |
The house is however a beautiful example of a surviving thirteenth century building. Sadly the inside was closed on the day we visited, so we couldn’t go in, but we did spend some time in the gardens adjacent. In the gardens there is also the site of nineteenth-century cottages called Queen Anne Cottages in Church Court, now marked by a row of wooden benches with a roof. The cottages were demolished in 1938.
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| King John's House in Romsey, Jo Romero |
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| Garden next to King John's House, Romsey, site of Queen Anne's Cottages |
I really hope to be able to travel back and see inside the house and visit the tearooms, where I understand there is more information about the building and obviously have a cuppa and a teacake! If I do get to go back I'll update this post.
Find out more about King John’s House and the Tudor Cottage in Romsey on their website. If you’ve been and visited inside, let me know what it’s like in the comments!
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