Charles Dickens

"He can touch every chord of human sympathy with an intensity of power which would be almost painful if it were long sustained."

The Hampshire Telegraph describing the last visit of Charles Dickens to his birthplace of Portsmouth in 1866 when he gave a reading.

Winston becomes a Freeman

"This is an honour which I profoundly value and which I shall always cherish."

Part of Winston Churchill's acceptance speech when on 11 December 1950 he received the Freedom of Portsmouth. He had been a regular visitor to the City throughout his life.

The Mint

'... in Gold Steet new sovereigns would be tarnished; in Silver Street, silver would rapidly assume the colour of pewter or lead; in Steel Street, steel would be rusted by the noxious vapours arising from accumulations of all kinds of filth and deleterious gases.'

Quoted by J R Martin, 1845

Tin canoes

'We like England very much. It is very beautiful.We have seen Salisbury Cathedral which is very fine and the ship where Nelson died which is all gold with wooden guns, and Westminster Abbey where they crown the kings of England and the Tower, where they cut thier heads off. But the best things in England are the tin canoes at Southsea.'

Andre Maurois, the French author, visiting Portsmouth in the 1920s

Merton Road

 '... it was in a notoriously bad condition, full of holes in some places and in others a perfect pond. Those who drove through the road in carriages were put to great inconvenience and annoyance, for their wheels were no sooner out of one hole than they were into another. The road was highly dangerous.'

A description of Merton Road, Portsmouth, 1877

An Arsenal

‘This great arsenal, the most considerable naval emporium and strongest fortress in England, is a seaport, borough and market town, in the Hundred and Division of Portsmouth, but having separate jurisdiction.’

Post Office Hampshire Trades’ Directory 1847

Lack of reptiles

'The salubrity of the air around Portesmouth is evident from the lack of reptiles in the vicinity.'

The Portesmouth, Portsea and Gosport Guide 1799

Sea Bathing

'Southsea beach boasts a superiority over any other in the kingdom, for the clear sea-water, and the acknowledged utility which has followed the use of its baths in numerous complaints which bade defiance to medical skill'

A visitor Thomas Roscoe writing in 1830.

Dullness and inactivity

The busy activity of the place occurs only ... when a fleet comes in or is about to sail, at which periods the town becomes all crowd and hurry for a few days, and then suddenly reverts to a languid intermission of dullness and inactivity.

Dr George Pinckard, 1795, describing Portsmouth

A ratepayer and the Infant School

An anonymous ratepayer writing to the Hampshire Telegraph in 1869 gave the following hair-raising description of St Mary's Street:

of 'the seventy-four houses, seven are occupied by licensed victuallers, sixteen are beer houses, fourteen are licensed refreshment houses, whilst nearly all the houses in the many courts and alleys adjoining are rented by beer-house keepers and let in rooms to the unfortuante wretches who frequent their vile dens... One scoundrel has the audacity to call his house the 'Infant School' (due to the age of the girls supplied there).

For more read the excellent Portsmouth Paper 38, Public Houses and Beerhouses in Nineteenth Century Portsmouth by Riley and Eley.

Salubrity of Southsea

‘Sunny Southsea – so called because of the illustrious office of the day is very much in evidence here. Southsea has made rapid advances in public favour as a watering place. In 1899 when the British Medical Association held its annual meeting in Portsmouth, emphatic testimony was borne by distinguished members of the profession to the salubrity of Southsea. Under the genial stimulus of its breezes from the sea, visitors speedily recover their pristine health and are then able to appreciate its diversified features of interest.’

Extract from the British Medical Conference handbook, 1904

Beating the Boys

It was formerly the custom, at certain intervals of time, to perambulate the bounds of each parish, a ceremony familiarity styled, 'beating the bounds'. Litanies and prayers were said for the increase of corn and fruit; tokens of boundaries were set up or restored, and the old curse was promounced against him who should remove his neighbour's landmark. The old custom of beating the boys at each boundary mark was with the object of impressng the parochial limits on their youthful minds. Gifts were sometimes subtituted for the whippings. The bounds of Portsmouth were beaten as late as 1813, and Portsea, 1824.

Taken from Portsmouth in the Past, Gates, 1926

Pevsner's view

Portsmouth in 1965 is, as a whole, muddled and visually squalid; it still has the chance to make itself something very different, and much better, before the end of the C20.

Taken from 'The Buildings of England' by Pevsner and Lloyd, 1967

Public Conveniences

‘Please adjust your dress before leaving’ was the sound advice placed on tiles in Portsmouth public conveniences in the early 1900s.

Loathsome Portsmouth

'that loathsome place subject to ague and the infection of so many poor sailors'

The view of Secretary Cope, one of the Commissioners of The Admiralty, writing in May 1628.

The Free Mart Fair

"It creates great dissatisfaction among the respectable inhabitants. Disreputable characters of every sort haunt the town during its continuance, and the streets are in a state even more disorderly than usual. Many of the inhabitants quit Portsmouth for the time to avoid the nuisance." This quote from a report presented to the Corporation in 1835 describes the Free Mart Fair which was held annually in the High Street, Portsmouth. Held since Mediaeval times it was originally an important regional trading fair. However by this time it had become a magnet for pickpopckets, prostitutes, deserters and derelicts. It was finally abolished in 1847. An excellent resource regarding the Free Mart Fair is available on this link: http://www.sopse.org.uk/ixbin/hixclient.exe?a=query&p=hants&f=generic_theme.htm&_IXFIRST_=1&_IXMAXHITS_=1&%3Dtheme_record_id=hs-hs-freemart_1

An ill named place

Portsmouth has an ill-name in public estimation for the behaviour and morals of its inhabitants and most undeservedly do strangers imagine that a laxity of proper feeling predominates among its females. We who know the place have ever scouted the injustice of this charge against its population. Hampshire Telegraph, January 1846

Grand Parade

This fashionable area of Portsmouth was the hub of activity and centre for military parades. It has variously been described as: ‘A most charming resort for the gay, the elegant and the distinguished of both sexes. The public promenades, on the Platform, Parade, Ramparts and the Queen’s Battery, where the company are regaled every fine evening with the most choice airs, performed by the military bands, are also a charming source of rational and healthful entertainment to minds susceptible to such exquisite pleasures.’ Mottley 1776 ‘this guard (the main) is very well situated as it commands the gate, the High Street and is near the magazine (Square Tower), the platform and the governor’ Leake 1729 ‘the ramparts next to the sea, with that beautiful prospect of the Isle of Wight, the ocean and the shipping’ Wilkinson ‘everything looked so beautiful under the influence of such a sky, the effects of the shadows pursuing each other, on the ships at Spithead and the island beyond’ Jane Austen in Mansfield Park

A Dockyard the size of a Town

‘The Dockyard resembles a town in the number of its dwelling houses, offices, storehouse, lofts and other edifices erected fro the various purposes of the yard. It contains amazing quantities of everything necessary for the royal navy. There are never less that 2,000 men employed in it, and in times of war upwards of 2,000..’ Guide to Portsmouth 1775

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.