Peculiar Constitutions

The inhabitants of Portsmouth ‘… are badly supplied with water, having none but what partakes of a saline quality; and even this is so scarce that were it not for showers of rain, which is most industriously catched by everyone, people could not possibly subsist. As it is, if their constitutions were not of a very peculiar make, they would long before now have attempted a remedy for so great an evil; …’ Taken from The Borough being a faithfull tho’ humerous account of one of the strongest garrisons and seaport towns in GB published in 1748.

The old Town Hall

The original town hall was built in the middle of the High St, Portsmouth close to St Thomas Church, in c1738. This was rather damningly described in 1748: ‘It is supported by Stone Arches; The superstructure Brick; containing one (it ought to be spacious) Room, and a Council-Chamber; but both ill contrived and excessively small. The Outside … is indeed noble and uniform; one end being ornamented by a handsome Portico, and the other a Venetian Window. Indeed the whole Building may be well compared to the Members of the Borough, in their scarlet and Furs; a pompous External, but very small dirty and irregular within.’ This building became an obstruction to traffic and was replaced by a new Town Hall, again in the High Street, built in the Doric style during the late 1830s.