Not two words that people would normally put together but a new website that showcases the city aims to visually document the unusual and often forgotten elements of Portsmouth as told by the people.
Deer Park Alpha have been been busy designing the website with bit of help from myself in supplying the photographs. We now need your help in getting more. So if you feel you have images that best sum up your view of the city please visit the links below.
To add your image to the website you will need to join one of twelve Flickr groups that have been set up. Images need to be landscape, as high a resolution as possible and also have a title that reflects the image. Please do not post images with watermarks on them or credits.
The Langstone Ark is a project being run by Langstone Harbour’s Environment Officer Louise MacCallum that went live on-line in August. The project aims to create a digital collection of all the animals and plants associated with Langstone Harbour, by asking harbour users, visitors, and anyone else with an interest in the harbour to send digital photographs of wildlife taken on the water, or around the shoreline.
So far, over 150 photographs have been contributed to the project, and nearly 100 species are now represented. There are literally 1000’s of species of animal and plant to be found around the harbour however, so there are plenty of gaps in the project left to fill!
Autumn is a great time of year to see wildlife around Langstone Harbour, with thousands of migratory birds beginning to arrive and beautiful fungi springing up on many of the wildlife reserves dotted around the shoreline.
What I love about Southsea is that it still has the power to surprise me. If you get yourself to Viviers Fishmarket down The Camber today you can get a glimpse of this beast! An 84.5 pound Porbeagle shark! Ever since childhood I have been fascinated by creatures of the deep, so when a strong islander informed me of this I knew I had to take a peek. The lady at Viviers told me that it took five men to bring it onboard and that it was caught off the coast of Scotland. However I like to think that it held a murky lair under the pier…
The sun setting over South Parade Pier is a view from Southsea beach all of us have experienced yet never gets old. This photo was taken by ‘Southsea Dave’, check his Flickr HERE to see loads more great local photos.
The Savoy Building has been a key part of the Southsea seafront for over 80 years. Built in 1929 with it’s location opposite South Parade Pier The Savoy started out as a popular ballroom (and aquarium!) and through the years became a key live music venue in the 60s, including playing host to The Beatles on 7th April 1963. In more recent times the building became split up in to separate clubs and venues that went under many names through the 90s and 00s before closing and slowly becoming derelict. The left half of the building that once was home to the infamous 5th Avenue was demolished a couple of years ago and the remaining part of the building was sadly destroyed by fire yesterday.
The building was for many years the hub of Southsea when it came to people going out in the evening and will for many hold some fond memories (for me it was the hip hop night downstairs in 5th and the weekly rock night downstairs next door). If you have any memories of the place, be it queueing up for a late night burger at the corner shop, waiting for ages for a taxi, a particularly rawkus night out…anything, please add them as a comment, we would love to hear them. Also if you have any photos or video of the building from before, during or after the fire please send them over: contact@strong-island.co.uk.
The following photos were sent to us by Strong Islanders:
Southsea Deckchairs are a family run business and have always been based in Portsmouth, where their deckchairs are still hand finished to this day. 20 years on Southsea Deckchairs are soon to celebrate their anniversary and have now updated their website with all their fantastic designs and styles which offers over 90 variations of deckchair fabric design alone.
Southsea Deckchairs are used on the majority of beaches and promenades up and down the UK, and even recently when I went to Newquay I sat on an old beach lounger by them. Literally everywhere. Check out their new website designed by www.mindworks.co.uk over at www.deckchairs.co.uk.
Artist Pete Codling has recently started creating a giant charcoal drawing directly on the SPACE gallery wall in Eldon Building, Winston Churchill Avenue. The building, which will be demolished in November along with this final artwork, was actually Codling’s old studio space when he was a student at Portsmouth College of Art in the late 1980s.
This ‘charcoal epitaph’ is a personal way for the artist to say good bye to the building but also to celebrate the creativity of many artists, designers and musicians who have used this space over the last fifty years. This drawing on the main wall will be nearly ten metres by five meters with other smaller walls being included in the composition. The artwork will be inspired by classical mythology from his travels in the Mediterranean and will refer to Portsmouth and the history of the building.
Some of you might know of his work around the city such as the One Million Pebble project on Southsea beach and his sculptures at the John Pounds Community Centre on Queen Street in Portsea.
One Million Pebble project UPDATE – If any of you have found any of these washed up the shore then Pete would love it if you could send him a picture and even send a picture of the pebble being put back onto another beach – perhaps on your holiday this summer? I found one a few years ago and will take this to the Gower Coast with me this year. See more on the project here – http://www.petecodling.co.uk/one_million_pebbles.htm
If you are passing, feel free to drop into SPACE to talk to Pete Codling about his drawing or if you would prefer to make an appointment, contact him on pete@petecodling.co.uk
Last month we embarked on our first Strong Island photo shoot for our new Summer tee shirt colourway, red. Now, I say photo shoot, it was more like just going out and having a laugh with mates. No pro set ups. Just a 35mm camera, a little point & shoot, 2 willing participants in Alanna Smith and Pete Miles, lovely weather and some unique locations. The new tee is simply a reverse of the Winter tee with the logo on the back and the anchor logo on the front. This seasons must have, obviously….
After visiting the Greyhound Stadium we headed to The Bridge Tavern for a few beers whilst we waited for Ben Mills to come and pick us up and take our small crew out in to The Solent. I’ve always wanted to go and get up close to the forts and buoys and the fact that both Alanna and Pete were up for a bit of ‘off boat’ photography made for a great shoot.
Click on the cover images below to see both Tristan and Pauls lookbooks, then make sure to head over to the newly opened shop and buy a tee HERE.
Flickr is a goldmine for amazing Southsea photos and amazing Southsea photographers, this star trail photo taken by Andrew Whyte taken at the Rose Garden is something special. If you like this keep an eye on the Portsmouth at Night Flickr group for more.
There have been some significant changes happening down at Southsea Castle in preparation for a busy summer. The first change is that entrance to the castle is now free! The other change are the major refurbishment to the castle including the opening of the new Yellow Kite cafe. Yellow Kite is a local social enterprise committed to providing locally-sourced, healthy eating options in Portsmouth, through a network of community cafes and events catering.
The cafe has it’s official launch reception this evening from 6-8 where you can view the new cafe and try the different food that will be available this summer.
As you may know each year we run a home brew competition in February where the winning brew has the opportunity to be brewed by Irving & Co Brewing Co. and sold around the city in the summer. Last year’s brew, the Strong Island Hopper Ale, was hugely successful being one of Inving’s best selling ales and selling out so quickly it went through a second brew run. This year’s winning ale is Dry Dock No. 1, originally brewed by Lee Immins, went on sale in some of Portsmouth and Southsea’s pubs over the weekend.
We spoke to The Hole in The Wall in Southsea who said the new ale went down a storm with it being their best seller on Sunday and with almost two barrels empty by the end of the Bank Holiday weekend. Those guys at the Hole in The Wall and their regular ale drinkers know their stuff so for us this was amazing early news with the ale.
To officially launch Dry Dock No. 1 we are having a launch party with the lovely souls at The Belle Isle on Thursday evening. The ale will be on full flow, come down and try a pint or two. As well as being on sale all around the city the ale will also be available in Chichester’s Belle Isle too, so you can drink it away from home for the first time too.
Just over a year ago, a group of Strong Islanders were sat on the Isle of Wight ferry on our way to the yearly Randonnee cycling event; 60 miles around the island spread across 5 checkpoints. Whilst on the crossing we couldn’t help but admire various enthusiasts and their custom team jerseys. Fast forward a year and it is my great pleasure to unveil the Strong Island cycling jersey. Made as a one off for the event, the jersey is our way of representing this city and all the values that come with it. Thanks to the combined designing efforts of Chris Ballingall and Tristan Savage, we were able to produce this clean, retro looking jersey that 11 of Southsea’s finest could wear to conquer the island’s endless hills. Well done chaps.
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