Following a £3.1million refurbishment, the 700-year-old Grade 1 listed God's House Tower - a scheduled ancient monument in Southampton's Old Town - will reopen in autumn 2019 as a unique arts and heritage venue. A warm welcome to groups will be a priority and plans have been put in place to take bookings now. 

Highlights include a cutting edge permanent exhibition on the history of the building over four floors - with gruesome details of Southampton's last hanging, the sorry lives of 19th century prisoners and a full display dedicated to medieval gunners and weapons. Specially commissioned animations and cutting edge technology will bring the colourful story of this iconic medieval Town Quay gatehouse spectacularly to life. The venue will also be home to a Collections Gallery, showing period works from prestigious collections and a Contemporary Gallery, showing specially commissioned work from south coast artists - all responding to the first year curatorial theme, GHT: Beside the Sea.

An exciting arts and heritage programme featuring exhibitions, events, workshops and talks is also in development with high profile national and local writers, historians and artists already booked. Specialist GHT tour guides from Southampton Tour Guide Association will offer tours round the building, which can also be combined with a tour round Southampton's medieval Old Town (Old Town tours last approximately 90 minutes). GHT will cater for groups of between 10 and 30 people in each space at any one time and larger numbers groups can be accommodated by arrangement.

Groups can benefit from: 

- a 10% discount on tickets for groups of 15 or more

- free tea or coffee for the organiser and coach driver

- group itineraries 

- a guided tour around GHT and free familiarisation visits for group leaders to help them plan their visit 

A combined ticket with tour of the Old Town costs £10 per person when pre-booked and a guided tour of GHT is just £8. GHT is just 10 - 25 minutes' walk from the Southampton cruise terminals and there are convenient coach drop-off points around the corner on High Street and in Mayflower Park. An added extra is an imaginative in-house café serving tempting food and drinks from local providers, an arts and heritage library and a shop selling a full range of tempting merchandise to remind visitors of their trip.

The autumn launch is perfectly timed for the start of the Mayflower 400 programme, when Southampton will be part of international anniversary commemorations of the Pilgrim Fathers' journey to the New World on board the Mayflower ship.

Groups wanting to find out more should email  info@godshousetower.org.uk, putting ‘group visit' in the subject line, or call 02380 338 778.