Portsmouth (England)

1 Introduction

Portsmouth is an island city on the south coast of England, is located opposite the Isle of Wight and is between Gosport and Hayling Island. The city has rich history with the dockyard having played a vital role in the navy for hundreds of years. Southsea, the southern region of Portsmouth, is a typical British seaside resort with a long shingle beach, piers and other attractions. I was born in Portsmouth and have lived ...
...Historic Dockyard

Portsmouth is the home of the Royal Navy so has lots of history to share. Part of the dockyard is open to visitors and has a number of attractions including HMS Victory, HMS Warrior, the Mary Rose and the Royal Naval Museum. HMS victory was Nelson's Flagship in the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 - it has been restored to it's original condition so that you can go on board and look around - its really quite cool being ... more

1 Introduction

Portsmouth is an island city on the south coast of England, is located opposite the Isle of Wight and is between Gosport and Hayling Island. The city has rich history with the dockyard having played a vital role in the navy for hundreds of years. Southsea, the southern region of Portsmouth, is a typical British seaside resort with a long shingle beach, piers and other attractions. I was born in Portsmouth and have lived here for 20 years, so I have experienced Portsmouth's leisure attractions on many different occasions and at different ages.

Contents:

1 Introduction
2 Things to Do in Portsmouth
2.1 The Historic Dockyard
2.2 The Fairground and Clarence Pier
2.3 The Blue Reef Aquarium
2.4 The Pyramids Splash Pools
2.5 Southsea Castle
2.6 The seafront and Canoe Lake
2.7 Pitch and Putt
2.8 Museums
2.9 Shopping
2.10 Pubs, Clubs and Entertainment
2.11 If you get Bored of Portsmouth
3 Transport
4 Places To Stay
5 Conclusion

2 Things to Do in Portsmouth

2.1 The Historic Dockyard

Portsmouth is the home of the Royal Navy so has lots of history to share. Part of the dockyard is open to visitors and has a number of attractions including HMS Victory, HMS Warrior, the Mary Rose and the Royal Naval Museum. HMS victory was Nelson's Flagship in the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 - it has been restored to it's original condition so that you can go on board and look around - its really quite cool being on a ship that was in battle 2 hundred years ago and to walk on the same decks as Nelson. HMS Warrior was built in 1860 and was the world's first iron-hulled battleship. Its quite unusual in that it has both sails and engines and is quite impressive to walk around because of its size and because it is a strange mix between old sailing ships with cannons and the modern metal ships we see today - I particularly liked walking around the engine room. The Mary Rose is famous for sinking embarrassingly just before going into battle in 1545. The Mary Rose is slightly less intact than Victory and Warrior, mainly due to having sat at the bottom of the sea for more than 400 years before being lifted out in 1982. At the moment, the remains are being sprayed with water containing a wax solution to preserve the timbers, but there is a gallery that you can watch it from with a commentary and it is possible to see the remains through the mist, about half of the ship is there, split lengthways down the middle. An adjoining museum contains lots of items that were found on the ship, they are quite cool to look at being 450 years old! The royal Naval Museum details the history of the Royal Navy - I didn't think this was as exciting as the ships so I didn't pay much attention. Also, if you have children, they will probably like Action Stations which is a building full of interactive games with a flight simulator.

Every few years the international festival of the sea is held in the dockyard - for a few days in the summer hundreds of ships come from around the world and there are is live entertainment and lots of extra stuff to see and do. The only problem is that there are so many visitors (hundreds of thousands over the few days) that there are massive queues for all of the resident ships, so if you want to see them you might be better off visiting at a different time.

2.2 The Fairground and Clarence Pier

The fairground is situated on the seafront and has all of the rides you would expect to find including Dodgems, Waltzers, A vertical drop ride (very scary), a water drop slide (a bit small for adults, good for children though) and not forgetting the roller coaster - this is especially scary because it overhangs the sea and looks like it could collapse at any moment. The rides are paid for with tokens that can bought individually, so you can buy as many or as few as you want. If you're not a fan of rides, there are amusement arcades, candy floss stalls (yum) and Pirate Pete's - an indoor adventure playground for children with those plastic tubes to crawl through and ball pits etc.

2.3 The Blue Reef Aquarium

As with most of the leisure attractions this is beside the sea. The aquarium has a wide variety of fish and other water-dwelling creatures including sharks, Piranhas, Carp, Rays, eels, turtles, crabs, otters, frogs, Puffer fish and all sorts of tropical fish including everybody's favourite Clown Fish (see if you can find Nemo!). One of the tropical tanks is shaped as a tunnel that you can walk through. Photography is allowed but there are areas where you can't use a flash because it disturbs the fish.

2.4 The Pyramids Splash Pools

The Pyramids Centre has splash pools which are great on a hot summers day. The largest pool has a wave machine that generates waves for five minutes every half hour and has a big done-shaped fountain. The second pool is a shallow pool for toddlers and babies and has a few tiny slides and the third pool is reasonably deep but quite small. There are three water slides which are not particularly fast but I guess they are better than nothing. It should be noted that there aren't any pools intended for just swimming - they are all splash pools. Again, the Pyramids Centre is located on the seafront.

2.5 Southsea Castle

Southsea castle was built by Henry VIII in 1544. It has a keep, a curtain wall around the outside and best of all an underground tunnel! The keep contains a museum detailing the history of the castle and a big model of Henry VIII (he's really rather large). There are stairs up to the roof of the keep from which is possible to see quite far out to sea. The castle also has a 'Time Tunnel' - one of those exhibits where there are a series of narrated scenes telling a story. The tunnel has always been my favourite bit of the castle ever since I ran up and down it as a 5-year-old, it is fairly long and runs under the moat of the castle (the moat no longer has water in it) and up outside the castle.

A little further along the coast there are two more castle-like building - the Square Tower and the Round Tower - these were built at around the same time as Southsea Castle but are mostly closed to visitors, though you can still walk on/around/through little bits of them.

2.6 The Seafront and Canoe Lake

The seafront consists mostly of a shingle beach but part is covered with sea defences. The beach is naturally sand, but the shingle was put on top to prevent erosion, its a shame really as sand is so much nicer :( The beach is south-facing so is great for sunbathing (don't forget the sun block) and the water is improving in quality - a few years ago it was awful but it is getting better, though it still hasn't quite been given a blue flag. Along the seafront is Southsea Common - a large expanse of grass on which for a few days in the start of August each year the Portsmouth & Southsea Show is held. Southsea common is surrounded by flower beds and a rock garden which looks great in the summer. Just along from Southsea common is Canoe Lake. During the summer the lake is popular with children because it is full of crabs - I spent many hours here as a child fishing for crabs with a bit of ham on the end of some fishing line (don't worry, the crabs don't get harmed). There are pedal boats available to hire that can hold either two or four people but despite the name, I don't think there are canoes available to hire any more. Adjacent to the lake are some rose gardens, a model village and a children's playground. close by is South Parade Pier - last time I went there it had amusement arcades on it but it might well have changed by now as that was about 8 years ago.

2.7 Pitch and Putt

There is a Pitch and Putt golf course on the seafront with 9 holes, this is great for families/inexperienced golfers as you get lent the clubs and the holes aren't to big so if you are like me and can't hit the ball properly you will get to the end before long with a few small knocks. There is a minimum age limit for children (either 10 or 12, I can't remember) so if you have younger children, the Crazy Golf at the fairground might be more suitable. Portsmouth has two 18 hole Par 69 courses which are more suitable for expert golfers, but these are in the north of the city away from the tourist areas.

2.8 Museums

As a historical city, there are a number of museums in Portsmouth, here are all the ones I know of and have visited:
- Portsmouth City Museum - Has an ice-age tunnel, a history of Portsmouth and some reconstructed rooms such as a 1930's kitchen.
- Southsea Castle - see section 2.5
- The D-Day Museum - A museum describing the D-Day landings at the end of WW2, includes the Overlord embroidery - a massive tapestry that describes the landings. There is an audio commentary available so that you can listen to a description of what all the different panels show. Whilst this is very informative, I went there as a child and was bored stiff after about 10 minutes, though there are big tanks and things in the rest of the museum that will keep children happy.
- The Natural History Museum and Butterfly house - This seems to be mostly aimed at children. It describes the history of our planet and how life evolved. The butterfly house is full of plants and contains a number of different species of butterfly - there are most in the summer though so that is the best time to visit. There is one room to watch out for if you are of a delicate composition (there is a warning outside) - it is a Victorian-style museum room with lots of glass jars containing random pickled things like snakes and real stuffed animals - it smells of dead stuff.
- Charles Dicken's Birthplace - The tiny little house that Charles Dickens was born in. It is authentically decorated and has the couch that Dickens was lying on when he died.
- The Royal Marines Museum - Describes the history of the Royal Marines, including their part in the Falklands war. The museum building is quite impressive - it is a converted Victorian Barracks building.

2.9 Shopping

Portsmouth has two main shopping areas - Commercial Road and Gunwharf.

Commercial Road is a standard city centre shopping area - it has all the standard shops you would expect to find, including an Allders department store. Many of the shops are linked to form the Cascades shopping centre which is a good place to go if it is raining. Portsmouth is also of course home to what was voted Britain's ugliest building - the Tricorn centre, located in Commercial road, though it is currently being demolished so should be replaced with some a little nicer within the next few years. There is also a nice friendly bowling alley and a big bingo hall for the older generation.

Gunwharf is a harbourside shopping centre, was built just a few years ago and has 100+ factory outlet-style outlets which sell things at a discounted price, including many designer brands such as Oakley, Ben Sherman, Tog 24, Fat Face and Gap. There are also lots of classy bars such as Tiger Tiger and fortunately for students like me with no money there is a Burger King. Gunwharf has an 11 screen cinema, a bowling alley, a Casino and currently under construction is Portsmouth's Millennium Tower - a massive tower beside the harbour that will be 165 metres high when it is finished - it looks great now and it's only half built at the moment. When it is finished it will be possible to travel to the top on a lift to some viewing decks from which the view should be quite impressive. Currently it is estimated that the tower will be completed in 2005. Gunwharf generally a pleasant place to be as there are lots of places to sit facing the harbour from which ships can be seen entering and leaving.

2.10 Pubs, Clubs and Entertainment

Portsmouth has an incredible number of pubs to suit different people. There are nice pleasant family pubs beside the sea as well as lively student pubs. There are a number of clubs, i'm not really a fan of clubbing so I can't say a lot about them. One word of warning though - Portsmouth has its fair share of thugs and hooligans so don't go clubbing alone - it can be quite dangerous at night. For entertainment, the Guildhall has a variety of live music and shows and the King's Theatre has (slightly infrequent) shows and pantomimes.

2.11 If you get Bored of Portsmouth

If you get bored of what Portsmouth has to offer, there are ferries available that will take you to Gosport or Hayling island. There are also frequent hovercraft from the beach at Southsea to Ryde on the Isle of Wight. Ryde is a nice little seaside town with massive sandy beaches and of course from there you can travel to the rest of the island which is packed full of tourist attractions.

3 Transport

Portsmouth has good transport links with the rest of England - there are trains that travel between Portsmouth and London Waterloo or Bristol. The M27 passes the north of the city if you want to travel by road and there are regular National Express coaches between Portsmouth and London as well as many other places. If you want to visit from abroad, there is a continental ferry port with ferries to Cherbourg, Caen, St Malo and Le Havre in France and Bilbao in Spain. There are also ships to the Channel Islands if you happen to live there.

Once you are in Portsmouth, you can never be more than about 10 minutes walk from a bus stop and there are regular bus services throughout the city as well as Taxi services.

4 Places to Stay

The seafront along Southsea is lined with hotels and guesthouses, some of the largest being the Royal Beach hotel, Holiday Inn and Queens Hotel. The Ibis Hotel and the Marriott Hotel are a short bus ride away. There is also a caravan park with both caravans and pitches available to hire.

5 Conclusion

As you can probably see, there are lots of things to see and do in Portsmouth. Its a great destination for families but there are plenty of things for singles and couples and groups of friends to do too. The only thing that Portsmouth doesn't have is sand on the beach. Although Portsmouth is generally quite sunny in the summer, it is of course in Britain, so don't forget your umbrella. 

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