The Dockyard Wall

The original Dockyard Wall was built between 1704 - 1711 from red brick. A large part of it still guards the Dockyard today and can be seen at the lower end of Queen Street. Other sections were engulfed by later extensions but can still be seen within the Yard.

The Foundation of Oceanography

The Challenger expedition, the scientific exercise credited with laying the foundation of oceanography, left from Portsmouth Harbour on 21 December 1872. The expedition was named after the mother vessel, HMS Challenger. She returned to Spithead on 24 May 1876 having spent 713 days at sea. One of its many acheivements was the discovery of 4,700 new species of marine life.

To find out more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Challenger_Expedition

Four House Green

It was here that Henry VII's great brewing houses for the burgeoning navy were situated. Henry built three with Elizabeth I adding another. They were located adjacent to St Nicholas Street where the adjoining meadow sourced springs of remarkably fresh water. Four House Green vanished when the Town's moat was constructed. However the water used as a fresh supply by older residents until the early 1900s and there remained breweries in St Nicholas Street until living memory.

Somerstown

Somerstown was developed during the 1820s, on land owned by Mr Somers, and was heavily bombed during World War II. After the war, the majority of what remained of the area was demolished to make way for social housing.

It is infamous for having one of the highest violent crime rates outside of London.

Zeppelin attack

In 1916 Portsmouth experienced its first aerial bombardment which came from a Zeppelin airship during the First World War.

A Cold War Mystery

In 1956, Lionel (Buster) Crabb, a World War II hero due to his work as an underwater clearance diver, was recruited by MI6 to investigate the Soviet cruiser Ordzhonikidze which was in Portsmouth on a diplomatic mission. In particular he was sent to investigate the Ordzhonikidze's propeller — a new design that Naval Intelligence wanted to find out more about. On 19 April Crabb dived into Portsmouth Harbour and was never seen again. MI6 tried to cover up the true nature of him mission. Crabb's companion in the Sally Port Hotel took all his belongings and even the page of the hotel register where they had written their names. Official documents at the National Archive have had the usual closure period of 30 years extended so they will not be available until 2057.

The next year, on 9 June 1957, a body in a frogman suit was found floating off Pilsey Island in the Harbour. It was missing its head and both hands, which made it impossible to identify (using then-available technology). Was this Buster?

There are many theories surrounding Buster’s disappearance and the incident has inspired films and stories including Ian Fleming for the James Bond adventure Thunderball.

For a fuller account:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lionel_Crabb

University of Portsmouth

This began as the Portsmouth and Gosport School of Science and the Arts in 1869 predominately to train the engineers and skilled workmen needed to work at both the city docks and the Naval dockyard. Following World War II, the college diversified its syllabus to attract new students and, in the 1960s, was given the power to award its own degrees being renamed Portsmouth Polytechnic.

In 1992, following a government higher education initiative, it was granted University status and has since been known as the University of Portsmouth. It retains however its original business focus having faculties of Business, Creative and Cultural Industries, Humanities and Social Sciences, Science and Technology.

Paulsgrove

Paulsgrove is believed to be named for St. Paul who, according to apocryphal legend, landed at the site at the start of his visit to Britain when it was part of the Roman empire. However a more likely explanation is revealed by certain old maps which show the area as PALS GRAVE, and is probably a reference to the last resting place of a (perhaps Saxon) local chief.

Taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paulsgrove

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

Anti Slavery

Portsmouth played its part in stopping slavery. From 1808 the Royal Navy's West Africa Squadron, who were tasked to stop the slave trade, operated out of Portsmouth.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/hampshire/6430401.stm

Christopher Hitchins

Christopher Hitchens, the Anglo American author, journalist and literary critic was born in Portsmouth, the son of a Naval officer, on 13 April 1949. In 2005 he was voted the world's fifth top public intellectual.

To link to his work: http://www.vanityfair.com/contributors/christopher-hitchens

A hot press

Press gangs were the scourge Portsmouth streets when these gangs of harsh men swept the town and scooped up any able bodied man who crossed their path regardless of marital status, dependants, home location or employment. One particularly 'hot press' occurred on 23 September 1803 when 'no protestations were listened to, and a vast number of persons were sent on board the different ships in this port ' (Portsmouth).

Sometimes even underhand methods were used. For example, a Capt Bowen made a spectacle of marching a party of marines ostenstibly to quell a riot and, when a crowd gathered to see the fun, turned on them to round up all the fit men.

East India Company

The East India Company, which had extensive interests in the Far East, India and China, used Portsmouth as a base. The Company had its own army and detachments would leave from Portsmouth together with company officials and passengers. Often these would be protected by naval escorts. The Company's involvement in the Town was such that they built repair facilities and extensive storehouses. For example, Lord Clive returning from India to Portsmouth in 1767 brought with him raw silk, redwood and saltpetre.

To find out more, read The East India Company and the Provinces in the Eighteenth Century: Portsmouth and the East India Company 1700-1815 v. 1 (Studies in British History) by James H thomas

The Siege of Lucknow

Heroes of the famous seige of Lucknow, part of the Indian Mutiny of 1857-8, are commemorated in Portsmouth. The three fields on which Havelock Park stands, located to the east of Victoria Road North, were brought in 1857 the same year as the seige, for £4,520, and the foundation stone laid a year later. The estate was named after Sir Henry Havelock who led the first relief column into Lucknow, while Sir Henry Lawrence, John Inglis, Sir James Outram and Sir Colin Campbell all gave their names to local roads.

A hanging and unusual souvenirs

On this day in 1782, a crowd reported to be somewhere between 20,000 and 100,000 strong gathered on Southsea Common, many of them having walked great distances to be there. They had come to watch David Tyrie, who had been convicted of high treason, be hanged, decapitated and disembowelled.But, when Tyrie arrived from Winchester prison, it was realised that nobody had thought to bring a rope. The executioner, with great presence of mind, acquired some from a lugger moored offshore. This gave Tyrie extra time to read his bible.

The Hampshire Chronicle reported that Tyrie was hanged for 22 minutes, his head severed from his body, his heart taken out and burned, his genitals cut off and his body quartered. The same account reported that after the body parts were buried on the beach some sailors dug up the coffin and cut the body into 1,000 pieces to distribute as souvenirs.

http://www.executedtoday.com/2011/08/24/1782-david-tyrie-the-last-hanged-drawn-and-quartered/

Nelson's First Column

This column on Portsdown Hill commemorating Admiral Lord Nelson predates a similar, and more famous, one in Trafalgar Square by 30 years. The foundation stone was laid in 1807, only two years after Nelson's death. It stands 110 foot high which together with being sited on top of the Hill has made it useful to ships navigating their way in to Portsmouth Harbour for the last 200 years. 

http://www.fareham.gov.uk/discover_local_area/whats_here/nelsonmonument.aspx

A sad year

Gates, the respected local historian, said that the year 1800 'was perhaps the saddest year Portsmouth had ever experienced'. On 6 January, 'the bakers close their ovens and refuse to bake bread, in order to induce the Magistrates to raise the assize of that article'; in September there was a 'tumultuous meeting of the populace in St George's Square, Portsea, respecting the high price of bread; and many windows broken and other damage done'. Such were the conditions that by 13 December, 'provisions (were) so scarce that servants were allowed only one quartern loaf of bread per week, and nine hundred pounds collected in Portsmouth to purchase Scotch herrings to supply to poor'.
Of course, Gates didn't know what was to come with the Blitz of World War II.

To find out more read A Portrait of Portsea by Joy Harwood

Merchant Trade

Portsmouth enjoyed a flourishing merchant trade of both national and international repute, based around the Camber, during the 1700 and 1800s. Ships from other British ports mixed with those from France, the New World, the Baltic, Portugal, the Middle East and India. The cargoes they brought included livestock, cloth, coal, cheese, timber, fish, soap, brandy, tobacco, bullion and a vast array of spices. The local community consequently became one of the most cosmopolitan in the British Isles with the townspeople daily rubbing shoulders with sailors from all over the known world.

Spiritualism

The first Spiritualist temple in Portsmouth, founded in 1901, was in Victoria Road South using the building that had previously been the School of Art. This was found not fit for purpose and was demolished in 1937 to be replaced with the present splendid temple, considered to be one of the finest in England.

Supporters who aided with the original purchase of the land included Arthur Conan Doyle who had become interested in Spiritualism while practising as a doctor in Portsmouth in the 1880s. The Arthur Conan Doyle Collection, Lancelyn Green Bequest includes an enormous amount of material relating to early spiritualism which can be consulted freely at the Central Library.

Stocks

Stocks for the punishment of 'rouges and vagabonds' were placed in three areas of Portsmouth: In (Old) Portsmouth they were placed on the Common with the whipping post nearby; in Portsea the were in Ordnance Row where they stayed until as late as the 1860s, and in Kingston they stood outside the George and Dragon pub in Kingston Road.