Built in about 1290 by John Fortin, a prosperous merchant, the house survived many centuries of domestic and commercial use largely intact.

German bomb damage in 1940 revealed the medieval interior of the house, and in the 1980s it was restored to resemble its initial appearance and placed in the care of English Heritage, to be run as a tourist attraction.

The house is built to a medieval right-angle, narrow plan design, with an undercroft to store wine at a constant temperature, and a first-storey bedchamber that projects out into the street to add additional space.

[1] The Medieval Merchant's House was built in about 1290 on French Street, Southampton,[2] then a major port and a large provincial town with a population of around 5,000, grown rich from the trade with England's continental possessions in Europe.

German bombs seriously damaged the house, revealing its medieval interior,[11] and as a result Southampton City Council bought the property.

[12] The Medieval Merchant's House on 58 French Street remains a tourist attraction and is a Grade I listed building and scheduled monument.

[14] The Medieval Merchant's House today faces onto French Street and combines walls built of Bembridge and Purbeck stone with a timber frontage.

[16] Architecturally the house is important because, as historian Glyn Coppack highlights, it is "the only building of its type to survive substantially as first built".

[17] Behind this is the central hall, originally designed with an open hearth in the middle, but now fitted with a 14th-century Flemish chimney, plastered so as to resemble brickwork.

[20] Beneath the house is an undercroft, or cellar, designed to store barrels of wine at a constant temperature; the brick floor is 18th-century in origin, however.