Oyster Street

This ancient street in Portsmouth was named after the catch landed by the fishing boats that have always used the sheltered waters of the Camber. The name first appears in 1549 and is regularly being used from 1666. In 1801, it was noted that in Portsmouth ‘Bread and oysters are sold… particularly by the gallon’ and a tourist mentions that he ‘lunches from an oyster stall’. Excavations in the area have also uncovered the remnants of a substantial local taste for oysters.