Robert Southey was born at 9 Wine Street on the 12th of August 1774. His father worked in a drapers on Wine Street with William Britton, linendraper. Later in life Southey recollected: 'the business at that time was a profitable one, and Britton’s the best shop of its kind in the town, which is as much as saying that there was not a better in the West of England. [...] Shop-windows were then as little used in this country, as they are now in most of the continental towns. I remember Britton’s shop still open to the weather, long after all the neighbours had glazed theirs' (The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey, p. 8). Southey's father always remained homesick for his Somerset roots and, as Southey recalls, painted a hare for the sign in the window of his drapers shop - a symbol of rustic sports.
Poet Laureate from 1813 until his death in 1843, Southey also wrote the children's favourite The Three Bears, published in the 1830s. In Southey's original tale, instead of Goldilocks, it was an old woman who breaks into the bears' house, eats the porridge and sleeps in Baby Bear's bed.
The original houses on the site have been demolished but a plaque commemorating Southey can be seen on the Prudential Buildings to the right.
