Southampton's Marinas
Ocean Village • Town Quay • Shamrock Quay • Saxon Wharf • Kemps Quay
Southampton's marinas run the length of the lower River Itchen and Southampton Water, from the flagship berths and waterside living at Ocean Village right down at the river mouth, through the working boatyards of Shamrock Quay and Saxon Wharf, up to family-run Kemps Quay further upstream. Every marina below has its own live AIS close-up (so you can see who's actually moored up or moving right now), a locator map, and its own currently-published visitor berthing rate, refreshed automatically rather than a fixed snapshot.
Where they all are
Map: Leaflet | © OpenStreetMap contributors
Click a marker to jump straight to that marina below.
★★★★★ THE UK'S ONLY 5-STAR MARINA
Ocean Village Marina
Southampton's flagship marina
Ocean Village isn't just Southampton's best-known marina - it's a genuine city landmark. Built on the site of Southampton's very first working dock (the "Outer Dock", opened in 1842) and redeveloped into a marina in 1986, it went on to start and finish the Global Challenge round-the-world yacht race three times (1992, 1996 and 2000) and sent the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race fleet off on its 2011 circumnavigation. For over twenty years it was also home to the historic Calshot Spit Lightship (built 1914, now preserved at the Solent Sky museum). MDL - the marina's own operator - describes Ocean Village as "the UK's first and only 5 star marina", and today it's as much a place to live and eat as it is to berth a boat: the Harbour Hotel Southampton, the Harbour Lights Picturehouse cinema, and a run of waterside restaurants (The Jetty, HarBAR on 6th, Bacaro, Casa Brasil, Figurati, Blue Jasmine, Banana Wharf and The Queen Mary among them) all sit right alongside the pontoons.
Marina plan
Source: MDL
326
berths
80m
max LOA
Ch 80
VHF
from £5.55/m/day
visitor berthing
1 Channel Way, Southampton, SO14 3QF • (023) 8022 9385 • Owner: MDL Marinas
Live AIS close-up
Live vessel positions via VesselFinder.
Current published visitor rate: from £5.55/m/day (daily visitor berthing, up to 12.5m LOA, excl. electricity), valid until 31st March 2027. See MDL's full tariff page »
More about Ocean Village Marina »
Town Quay Marina
Town Quay is owned and run by Associated British Ports (ABP). It's the most central of Southampton's marinas: right by the Ocean Terminal and the Isle of Wight ferry/hovercraft terminals, and a short walk from Westquay and the Cultural Quarter.
Town Quay, Southampton, SO14 2AQ •
023 8023 4397 • VHF Ch 80
~136 berths, max LOA 19m •
Owner: Associated British Ports (ABP)
Current published visitor rate: £4.91/m overnight (overnight visitor berthing, up to 20m, inc. VAT) • full rates »
Further up the Itchen: Shamrock Quay, Saxon Wharf & Kemps Quay
Photo: David Dixon (CC BY-SA 2.0, via Geograph) - The River Itchen at the Itchen Bridge - Shamrock Quay, Saxon Wharf and Kemps Quay all lie further upstream from here
Past the Itchen Bridge, the river carries three more working marinas: Shamrock Quay and Saxon Wharf (both MDL, facing each other across the river at Northam), and family-run Kemps Quay a little further up again.
Shamrock Quay
Named for the J-Class racing yacht Shamrock V, which has been linked with this site since the 1930s. Today it's a 255-berth marina that's also one of the Solent's major refit and boatbuilding yards, with a 75-ton travel hoist, a chandlery, a café and a menswear store all on site.
William Street, Northam, Southampton, SO14 5QL •
(023) 8022 9461 • VHF Ch 80
255 berths, max LOA 70m •
Owner: MDL Marinas
Current published visitor rate: from £5.55/m/day (daily visitor berthing, up to 12.5m LOA, excl. electricity) • full rates »
Saxon Wharf
Immediately across the river from Shamrock Quay, Saxon Wharf is more service centre than marina - built for superyachts and big motor cruisers, with heavy-duty, fully-serviced pontoons, a 200-ton boat hoist (one of the largest in Britain) and a Dry Stack facility for boats up to 13m. Staffed 365 days a year.
Lower York Street, Northam, Southampton, SO14 5QF •
(023) 8033 9490 • VHF Ch 80
max LOA 40m •
Owner: MDL Marinas
Current published visitor rate: from £5.55/m/day (daily visitor berthing, up to 12.5m LOA, excl. electricity) • full rates »
Kemps Quay
Kemps Quay is independent, run by Kemps Shipyard Ltd and family-owned by three generations of the Kemp family since 1913. It's the furthest upstream of Southampton's Itchen marinas, on the east bank about two miles above the river mouth. Around 290 berths in total: 30 non-tidal deepwater berths that stay afloat at all times, the rest semi-tidal on a soft mud bed. An 8-ton travel hoist handles craneage and lift-outs on site.
Quayside Road, Southampton, SO18 1BZ •
023 80 63 23 23 • VHF Ch 80
~290 (30 non-tidal, rest semi-tidal/drying) •
Owner: Kemps Shipyard Ltd (independent, Kemp family)
Current published berthing rate: from £79.50/ft/month (lowest published annual pontoon rate (paid in advance)) • full rates »
Semi-tidal berths mean less passing AIS traffic here than the river-mouth marinas - don't be surprised to see the view mostly empty.
Where this data comes from: locations and facts are drawn from each marina's own website. Visitor berthing rates are fetched periodically from each operator's own published tariff page and cached for up to a week - they're the marina's own current rate card, not a live per-slot availability quote (that requires contacting the marina directly, or MDL's own online quote tool for its three marinas). AIS vessel positions are genuinely live, via VesselFinder. Ocean Village's photos and the other four marinas' photos are Mark's own; the River Itchen banner photo above Shamrock Quay/Saxon Wharf/Kemps Quay is a credited Creative Commons photograph from Geograph Britain and Ireland.
See also: Full Solent AIS map • UK-wide Marina & Slipway Map • Local Tides • Local Sailing & Racing Calendar