The Common Hard

The Hard in Portsmouth dates from 1720 although the first buildings had appeared in the then named Ship and Castle Row, as early as 1710. These were residential although the area was soon taken over by businesses including many public houses. Being situated right outside the main Dockyard Gate, it was always popular with sailors whose ships had been paid off leading to a complaint to be made in 1859, ‘The Hard presents a scene of drunkenness and profligacy which baffles all description’. The building of the Hard itself, as a public landing spot in Portsea, was viewed with envious eyes by the older nearby settlement of Portsmouth leading to the following presentment at the Court Leet: ‘We present that the place called the Hard, latterly made to the water side nigh the Dock Gate within the liberties of this Burrough is a very great Damage to the inhabitants of the Burrough and tends to the Impoverishing of the same’. The Court Leet records can be viewed at Portsmouth Records Office, http://www.portsmouthrecordsoffice.co.uk/.