We were coming back from the Borough Markets replete with the best fish and chips we had ever had, clutching our shopping when we came across this ruined wall.
As the writing says this is the remaining wall of the palace of the once powerful Bishop of Winchester. Once you take a turn from where Sir Francis Drake's famous galleon The Hinde is displayed you suddenly come across this ruined wall. I was fascinated by it. It so reminded me of Delhi where in the middle of ordinary modern building the remains of a quilla or fort would peek out. I initially got excited thinking it was Roman ruins but it is a much later structure.This is what I found in the internet from this site. Harry Potter fans you would love this site. Anyways to get back to the ruins. this is what the site says about it.....
This was once the Great Hall of Winchester Palace, the residence of the powerful Bishops of Winchester. The palace was originally built in 1109 for the then Bishop of Winchester William Giffard. The last Bishop of Winchester to live at the Palace was Lancelot Andrewes (1555-1626) who oversaw the compilation of theAuthorised Version (also known as the King James Version) of the Bible.
During the English Civil War (1642-48) Winchester Palace was taken over by Parliament for use as a prison for Royalist soldiers, and was later sold for warehousing.
It was never, technically speaking, demolished, but rather slowly disappeared in the redevelopment of the warehouses. The movement of London's shipping further down the river in the 1970's led to a wholescale redevelopment of the area, in the course of which these late 14th century ruins were exposed to public view.
