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Hawthorns Urban Wildlife Centre
The Hawthorns Centre is provided to assist the public in learning to enjoy and understand the local environment.
The Display Room houses a number of live displays, now including a marine tank containing a variety of seashore creatures. This room is always popular with children.
Outside the building the grounds are landscaped to provide a variety of wildlife habitats where birds, amphibians, butterflies and dragonflies are among the creatures that may be seen in their appropriate seasons. The Hawthorns is surrounded by 365 acres of mixed woodland, lakes and meadows that make up Southampton Common.
All visitors are welcome, entrance is free of charge. There is an Activities Room for visiting school groups, a Display Room, a shop and toilet facilities.
Buildings and grounds have been designed with access for those with disabilities. The Centre is open, Summer and Winter, Monday to Friday, 10.00am till 5.00pm ; Saturday and Sunday 1.00pm till 4.00pm.
A brief history of the Hawthorns
Early in the 18th century a brick kiln and a house for the brickmaker were built on the site which is now the Hawthorns. About 100 years later the town clerk leased the site from the council, knocked down the brickmaker's old house and built a new large house for himself. He called his house "Hawthorn Cottage".
The site was just wasteland by 1945 as a result of bomb damage and military use during the war. The City Council used the site as a tree nursery until 1961 when it was leased to Chipperfield's Circus. Following some criticism, Chipperfield's children's zoo was closed in 1985 and again the site was left derelict.
In the south-east corner of the Common a gas-decontamination centre was built during the Second World War. The building was reopened in 1982 as an environmental information centre and became the Southampton Common Studies Centre. This recognised the extraordinary range of wildlife to be found on the Common, the largest of the City's open spaces and an SSSI.
The success of this Centre, and its expanding activities with both schools and public, made it desirable that larger premises should be found. To this end it was proposed in 1987 that the old Hawthorn Cottage site should be developed as an urban wildlife centre to encourage interest in wildlife over the whole of Southampton. To take over and extend the activities of the old Southampton Common Studies Centre, the Hawthorns Urban Wildlife Centre was opened in 1990.
The Hawthorns Urban Wildlife Centre
The Common
Southampton SO15 7NN
tel: 023 8067 1921
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