Of Southampton's many fascinating museums, the Southampton Maritime Museum is the most remarkable - not least for being a historic artefact in itself. While the museum opened in 1966, the building it occupies, the Wool House, was built more than 600 years ago, and had a long and varied history prior to housing one of the city's premier tourist attractions.

The Southampton Maritime Museum celebrates the city's prestigious history on the waves, so it's fitting that the building which houses the exhibits played such a key role in this story. The Wool House, as can be deduced by its name, was originally constructed to store wool for export to Flanders and Italy from Southampton Dock, and as early as 1407 it was described as being the largest and strongest of the town's merchant buildings.

The building has been a home for more than just wool, however, especially as the industry fell into decline in the early 16th century and it was put to various uses. Most famously, it served as a jail for French prisoners of war captured during the Napoleonic Wars in the early 19th century, and visitors today can see where prisoners carved their names into the wooden beams on the first floor.

Southampton is understandably proud of this iconic building, and it was lovingly restored to its former glory by Southampton City Corporation in the last century and classed as a Grade I listed building, recognising its historic status. The Southampton Maritime Museum opened on the premises in June 1966 and has been a focal point of tourist itineraries of the city ever since, with exhibits detailing such famous Southampton exports as the ill-fated RMS Titanic. Visitors can learn about some of the people who set sail on that doomed voyage in 1912, as well as finding out about other cruise and cargo vessels that set sail from Southampton Docks.

If you're visiting Southampton to learn about the city's rich history, there are many more attractions you should consider packing into your schedule, all of which can be easily reached from Southampton hotels. The Museum of Archaeology contains one of the most impressive archaeological collections in the country, charting Southampton's progress from a Roman town to an important Victorian port, and like the Maritime Museum this institute is also housed within a significant building - namely God's House Tower, which was the first purpose-built artillery fortification in the UK.