The city of Portsmouth
Portsmouth is situated on the south coast of the U.K., just across the Solent from the Isle of Wight. It is actually an island, separated from the mainland by about 10m of water when the tide is in.

Portsmouth is easy to get to, served by trains from London Waterloo and from South Wales, National Express coaches and by road (M3 to Southampton, M27 to Portsmouth). If you're coming from continental Europe, there's a ferry port, or if you're flying in we're about 1 hour from Gatwick and Heathrow airports.

The city is a mixture of a seaside resort and historical centre, with something to please people from all walks of life. Castles, museums and ships to explore, beaches to enjoy and nightclubs and entertainment for all.

The beach at Southsea has a Sea Life museum, piers, funfair and more. There are also nightclubs, plenty of pubs and restaurants. Albert Road has many Indian Restaurants, so if curry is your favourite food, there's plenty to choose from.

Portsmouth's Dockyard - traditional home to the Royal Navy and now a world famous centre of maritime heritage - houses three famous ships: Henry VIII's Mary Rose, Nelson's flagship HMS Victory and the Victorian iron clad HMS Warrior.

There are a string of forts surrounding Portsmouth, both in the harbour and on the hillside, known as Palmerston's Folly. These were built to keep the French out in the 19th Century. Forts Purbrook and Widley have been turned into activity centres with horse riding, assault course and archery for all to try. Fort Southwick is owned by the Defence Research Agency and Fort Nelson is now an Armouries museum. There is a maze of tunnels underneath them, and guided tours are available.

For literay fans among you, Portsmouth is famous as the birthplace of Chales Dickens. He was born in the city in 1812 where his father was a clerk in the Navy Pay Office.

For the sports lovers among you there's Portsmouth Football Club (narrowly escaping relegation from the First Division again!), the Mountbatten Centre where the Special Olympics were held in 1998, Portsmouth Rugby Club and Portsmouth and Northsea Swimming Club. Tennis is available at the Indoor Tennis Centre, swimming at one of four swimming pools (indoor, outdoor of fun-type pools), and sailing is available in Langstone Harbour.

Major employers in Portsmouth are the University, the Dockyard and IBM

This page is maintained by Lesley Adams and was last updated on 10-Jun-99.