Portsmouth, home of the Royal Navy

Portsmouth is the home of the Royal Navy and the only city in the UK built almost entirely on an island, Portsea Island, separated from the mainland by a narrow creek. On the south coast of England, in Hampshire, it has about 210,000 inhabitants and is one of the most densely populated cities in the country. Here you will find Nelson's flagship at Trafalgar, HMS Victory, and the wreck of the Mary Rose, Henry VIII's warship that sank in 1545 and was raised four centuries later. Charles Dickens and the engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel were born here, and Arthur Conan Doyle wrote the first Sherlock Holmes story here. Locals call both their city and their football club Pompey.

Trains from London Waterloo take about an hour and a half, and Southampton Airport is about half an hour away. Ferries sail from the port to the Isle of Wight, France and Spain.

A city born for the navy

Portsmouth's large, sheltered natural harbour was used as far back as Roman times: the Roman fort of Portchester, at the head of the harbour, still has 3rd-century walls among the best preserved in northern Europe. The town proper was founded at the end of the 12th century, and in 1495 King Henry VII built the world's first dry dock here. Ever since, Portsmouth's destiny has been bound to the fleet: for centuries its Dockyard was the largest industrial complex in England, with thousands of workers building, fitting out and repairing the empire's warships.

The "First Fleet" that took the first settlers and convicts to Australia sailed from Portsmouth in 1787, and in 1805 Admiral Nelson set out from here for the Battle of Trafalgar, where he died in victory. During the Second World War the city was heavily bombed, and in June 1944 its harbour and the nearby coast were the departure point for part of the D-Day landing forces: Eisenhower's headquarters were at Southwick House, a few kilometres north. Today Portsmouth is still home to about two thirds of the Royal Navy's surface fleet, including Britain's two large aircraft carriers.

The Historic Dockyard

The heart of any visit is Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, inside the still-active naval base, where a single ticket covers ships and museums spanning five centuries.

HMS Victory

HMS Victory, launched in 1765, was Horatio Nelson's flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar on 21 October 1805, when the British fleet defeated the combined French and Spanish fleets. Nelson was hit by a French marksman and died below decks at the moment of victory: a plaque marks the spot where he fell. Victory is the oldest naval warship still in commission in the world and remains the flagship of the First Sea Lord. You can explore the gun decks, the officers' quarters, the admiral's cabin and the sick bay where Nelson died.

The Mary Rose

The Mary Rose was Henry VIII's favourite ship. On 19 July 1545, sailing out to face a French fleet, she heeled over and sank off Southsea Castle, in front of the king, with almost all her crew. The seabed mud preserved half the hull and tens of thousands of objects. In 1982, in an operation watched live on television by millions, the wreck was raised from the sea. It is now displayed in a purpose-built museum opened in 2013, where the hull can be seen through great windows alongside objects from life on board: longbows, cannon, the surgeon's instruments, games, shoes and even the skeleton of the ship's dog. It is a unique time capsule of Tudor England. Scientists have even reconstructed the faces of some crew members from their skulls, and analysis of their bones has revealed where they came from, what they ate and the injuries left by years of pulling heavy longbows. Allow plenty of time: this is one of the most moving museums in Britain.

HMS Warrior and the other museums

HMS Warrior, from 1860, was the first iron-hulled armoured warship powered by steam and sail: at the time the most powerful ship in the world, so advanced that she made every other warship obsolete. Next door are the National Museum of the Royal Navy, telling the navy's story from the Middle Ages to today, and HMS M33, one of the few surviving ships from the Gallipoli campaign. The ticket also includes a harbour boat tour among modern warships and, across the water in Gosport, the Submarine Museum and the museum of naval firepower.

What to see in the city

Spinnaker Tower and Gunwharf Quays

The Spinnaker Tower, 170 metres high and opened in 2005, is shaped like a sail filled by the wind and is the city's modern symbol. From its viewing decks you can see the harbour, the ships, the Isle of Wight and, on clear days, more than thirty kilometres of coast; the glass floor on the first deck tests anyone afraid of heights. At its foot, Gunwharf Quays, an old naval ordnance yard, has become a large waterfront complex of outlet shops, restaurants and bars.

Old Portsmouth

Old Portsmouth preserves the fortifications that guarded the harbour entrance: the Round Tower and the Square Tower, from the 15th and 16th centuries, the walls known as the Hot Walls, the Sally Port passage from which officers left to reach their ships, and cobbled streets with historic pubs. Portsmouth Cathedral combines a medieval church with a spacious 20th-century nave. From the walls you can watch ships and ferries entering and leaving the harbour just metres away.

Southsea

South-east of the centre, Southsea is the seaside and residential district, with a promenade several kilometres long, shingle beaches, two Victorian piers and large gardens. Southsea Castle, built by Henry VIII in 1544, is where the king watched the Mary Rose sink. Nearby, The D-Day Story museum tells the story of the Normandy landings through soldiers' memories and the great Overlord Embroidery, more than eighty metres long, inspired by the Bayeux Tapestry. Every summer Southsea hosts Victorious, one of the largest music festivals in the south of England.

Dickens, Conan Doyle and Kipling

The Charles Dickens Birthplace Museum is the small Georgian house where the writer was born in 1812, furnished in the style of the period. Arthur Conan Doyle lived in Southsea as a young doctor in the 1880s: waiting for patients, who were few, he wrote A Study in Scarlet, the novel in which Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson first appear. The city museum holds one of the most important Conan Doyle collections in the world. Rudyard Kipling also spent some unhappy childhood years in Southsea, which he later described in his writing.

A day in Portsmouth

A possible itinerary: arrive early at the Historic Dockyard, at opening time, and start with the Mary Rose, which needs at least an hour and a half, then board Victory and Warrior. After lunch at Gunwharf Quays, go up the Spinnaker Tower to see from above the ships you have just visited. In the late afternoon walk to Old Portsmouth, along the walls and towers, and continue along the seafront to Southsea Castle. In the evening dine in one of the historic pubs of the old port or in the restaurants of Albert Road, Southsea's liveliest street, with live music venues and food from around the world.

The forts around the city

For centuries Portsmouth was the most heavily fortified city in England. As well as the harbour towers, around the bay stand the Palmerston Forts, built in the 1860s for fear of a French invasion: some are on the hills behind the city, like Fort Nelson, now a museum of artillery with hundreds of guns from around the world; others rise in the middle of the sea, in the Solent, like great artificial stone islands. Some of these sea forts have been turned into hotels and event venues, reachable only by boat.

The ferry port

Portsmouth is one of the UK's great passenger ports:

• to the Isle of Wight, with car ferries, fast catamarans and a hovercraft to Ryde, one of the very few year-round passenger hovercraft services left in the world, crossing in about ten minutes;
• to France, with Brittany Ferries ships to Caen, Cherbourg, Saint-Malo and Le Havre;
• to Spain, with crossings of about a day to Bilbao and Santander.

For those driving from continental Europe it is a very convenient gateway to the south of England.

Around Portsmouth

• Portchester Castle, at the head of the harbour: a medieval castle built inside the walls of a 3rd-century Roman fort, still almost intact.
• The Isle of Wight, with the white cliffs of the Needles, Queen Victoria's home at Osborne and family beaches.
• Winchester, England's ancient capital, with its cathedral, less than an hour away.
• The hills of the South Downs and the national park, a few minutes north of the city.
• Southampton, about half an hour away, with its great cruise-ship port.

Sport

Portsmouth FC, Pompey, won two consecutive English league titles, in 1949 and 1950, and the FA Cup in 2008. Their ground, Fratton Park, is one of the oldest and most characterful in the country, and the fans are famous for their chant, the Pompey Chimes. Portsmouth is also a sailing capital, with international regattas and nearby Cowes, on the Isle of Wight, home to one of the oldest sailing weeks in the world.

Living in Portsmouth

Portsmouth is a young university city, with the University of Portsmouth and tens of thousands of students. The economy revolves around the naval base and the defence industry, the port, tourism and services. Homes cost less than in London and much of the south-east, and the city offers the sea, beaches and links with the Continent. As a very densely populated island, traffic at rush hour is heavy, and some neighbourhoods have low incomes.

Getting there and getting around

• By train: from London Waterloo about an hour and a half; there are also direct services to Brighton, Southampton, Bristol and Cardiff. Portsmouth Harbour station is next to the Historic Dockyard, Gunwharf Quays and the Isle of Wight ferry terminal.
• By air: Southampton Airport is about half an hour away by train; Gatwick and Heathrow about an hour and a half.
• By ferry: from France and Spain with Brittany Ferries.
• In the city: the harbour area and Old Portsmouth are walkable; buses run to Southsea, but the seafront makes a lovely walk.

For travel around the rest of the country see trains and transport, and for other cities British cities.

Tips for your visit

• How long: a full day just for the Historic Dockyard, another for the Spinnaker Tower, Old Portsmouth and Southsea; one for the Isle of Wight.
• Tickets: Historic Dockyard tickets are often valid for repeat visits over a year; it is worth buying online.
• When to go: May to September for the sea and the ferries; June for the D-Day commemorations; August for the Victorious festival.
• Don't miss: sunset from the Hot Walls of Old Portsmouth, as ships pass just metres away and, on warm summer evenings, locals swim from the little shingle beach right below the old walls.

Portsmouth on the map

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