Portsmouth Heritage Open Days

Join Portsmouth as it showcases and celebrates its exciting range of architecture and culture during Heritage Open Days. This annual, national event co-ordinated by English Heritage, allows visitors free access to a range of properties, specially designed tours, walks, events and activities, that are not usually open or available to the public, or that would normally charge a fee. Come and explore these curious and interesting places around the city that are sometimes hidden or unknown to even the local residents.

This is your opportunity to discover the wealth of cultural treasures that Portsmouth has to offer, during one of the biggest FREE events of the year. For more information and contact details please visit www.visitportsmouth.co.uk and be sure to look at the Factsheet HERE.

Tags: Portsmouth Heritage Open Days

Portsmouth & Southsea Guide Book 1958

I missed out on THIS nice little book from the 50s all about Portsmouth & Southsea. If anyone was lucky enough to win it I’d love to see some scans or photos from the other 93 pages.

We are a nation with a great sense of sport and whatever the individual fancy you can be certain that you can indulge in is at Southsea. The Canoe Lake offers every facility for those who wish to row a boat and take the family for a safe trip amidst lovely surroundings. The Southsea Roller Skating Rink is the finest in the south of England. The Bowler, the Tennis player, the Putting enthusiast, the Golfer, the Swimmer, the Cricket player, the Cyclist, the Dancer and the Athlete will find ample facilities to watch or play at the favourite pastime. Yes! and even the football follower who holidays from mid-August onwards will be able to see “Pompey”, the pride of the South, in action at Fratton Park.

Vintage Photography – Sunny Southsea

Totally forgot to add this one to the series of ‘Vintage Photography – Sunny Southsea‘ that we had posted in the past. So following on once again from the photos of the Seafront and the Paddling Pool after The Bandstand and Tennis Courts and The Pier and Esplanade , here’s the final scan.

Vintage Photos

Adam Wintle recently uploaded to his blog loads of photos from an old book about Portsmouth passed down to him by his dad. Some of the photos in the book are incredible, be sure to spend some time having a good look through, below are a few examples:

Tags: Adam Wintle

Local Artist – David Thompson

The Hiscock Gallery on Stanley Street behind Waitrose has some interesting new vintage style prints in stock by local artist David Thompson. They are a series of digitally drawn images reflecting upon 1930 – 1950s style advertising posters, enhanced with modern techniques. A really nice simplistic approach highlighting the main features of the subject, yet still very technical and intricate in places. The front of The Victory is awesome.

All reproductions are genuine giclée prints, printed with pigment based inks on 180gms Canon Matte paper, fade resistant for 100+ years. These “Poster” Prints are all personally signed by the artist. Head on over to Davids Gallery and take a look for yourself. Nice stuff for sure.

Tags: David Thompson

Coming along nicely…

Confession!

The sneaky photo I posted last week of the Strong Island Co. crate was in fact a fake. I’ve been working on a design for friends and their new venture. I’ll keep it a bit hush for now, but here’s some of the development. Take one freshly made ply crate. Stain it mahogany. Beat and scratch the hell out of it with hammers, screwdrivers a plastering trowel and some sandpaper. Re-stain the dents and scratches to make them darker. Then scratch my head about how to authentically paint the logo on without making a mess of it…

Apologies to the people I duped.

Tags: Strong Island Liquor Crate

What a find!!!

Tags: Secret Photoshab

Portsmouth in the 1960′s

We’re been given the heads up on a talk and slide presentation being held this saturday 24th April by Brian Patterson. I’m afraid we don;t have too much information on the talk, but I’m sure it will be extremely interesting. We all love a bit of local history don’t we.

Pop down to St.Simons Church Centre Waverley Road Southsea at 7.30pm. Tickets are £5 and include refreshments. Call 02392 851490, 02392 793973, 02392 829440 between 10-12am for more information.

Tags: Portsmouth in the 1960's

Transport No. 1: Portsmouth Trolleybuses

With Portsmouth’s long history and particular geography it’s public transportation systems have been varied and have changed dramatically over the years. Over the next few weeks we are going to focus briefly on some of the more interesting ones, starting with the Portsmouth Trolleybuses.

The Portsmouth Trolleybus service provided by the Portsmouth Corporation was first introduced on the 4th August 1934 and covered most of the island and up to Cosham. The trolleybuses themselves were like normal double decker buses but were powered by overhead power cables like trams. The power lines for the trolleybuses criss-crossed overhead above the roads with routes and these wires became a constant in the city’s skyline, much like modern San Francisco and Vancouver.

The trolleybus service continued until the 27th July 1963 and then sadly the wires torn down and almost all of the trolleybuses scrapped, today only two of the trolleybuses survive. No. 201, which was in Portsmouth’s transport museum before being moved, now lives on display in Milestones Museum in Basingstoke. No. 313 was the very last trolleybus to run but now is in fully restored working order and running at East Anglia Transport Museum (see it running here).

You can find out about all of the trolleybuses and see more photos here and watch below to see them in action with super8 footage from the 1950s and 1960s. Still looks strange seeing traffic through Guildhall Square.

P.S. Will the Portsmouth transport museum ever find a new home?

Tags: Trolleybuses

Big Rave Night

Clearly ‘that top group from Portsmouth The Parkas’ used to rave hard at the licensed bar The Drill Hall in Camberley back in ’67. Awesome stuff for sure.

Flyer Seen : Pompey Pop Pix

Tags: The Drill Hall, The Parkas

Vintage Photography – Sunny Southsea

Following on again from the photos of the Seafront and the Paddling Pool after The Bandstand and Tennis Courts the previous week, here’s another scan from Khalid.

The Pavilion on Clarence Pier looks amazing. No more donkey rides though. Shame.

Vintage Photography – Sunny Southsea

Following on from photos of The bandstand and Tennis Courts the other week, here’s another scan from Khalid.

Back before East Jet in the late 1940s, early 1950s people flocked to Southsea seafront. Check the beach huts near Canoe Lake. Dozens of them and the Paddling Pool which is now occupied by the Sealife Centre. Love the little train to the right of the picture. Click for a closer look.

Tags: Photography, Seafront & The Coastline, Vintage & Historical Portsmouth

Telly Savalas Looks at Portsmouth

There’s more than ‘meats’ the eye to Portsmouth. A city where everyone in the know goes. Classic stuff. Kojak takes time between sucking lollipops and fighting crime to give us the 411 on Portsmouth city through the ages. Love the eclectic soundtrack. Thanks to Harry for posting this up for us in a previous article. Here’s looking at you Portsmouth…

Tags: Telly Savalas Looks at Portsmouth

Vintage Photography – Sunny Southsea

Big thanks to Khalid who sent over these vintage photographs scanned from The Images of Portsmouth (1993). We have a small selection so I’ll put one page up each week.

Love this first shot of the band stand on the common in the 1920s showing how the site was originally used before the Skatepark was built around it in the 70s. So many deckchairs, it must have been big business back then. It’s a shame they didn’t keep the bandstand as it was with the little steps and iron railing. It’s a little different NOW as Marcus’s ariel shot shows. Click the image to see the high res scan up close.

Old Ships and The Point

Continuing from the HMS Vanguard photos from earlier this week, this one shot from above shows the scale of the ship and her guns, which are as big as the pubs! The second photo is of HMS Victorious passing out in the 50s, with the old power station in the background. Hard to believe such a huge, dominating landmark like that is now just a memory.

Click on the images to see larger versions. Photos are taken from the wonderful Portsmouth From The Air book by Anthony Triggs.

Tags: HMS Vanguard, HMS Victorious, Old Portsmouth, The Point

Southsea Rock Gardens circa 1985

More random finds. It’s a shame to say I don’t think I’ve ever seen the Rock gardens looking this nice. Not sure how often upkeep fits into the Council agenda these days. Back in 1985 however it looks amazing. Click the photo for a bigger view.

Photo : Dom Walton

Tags: Southsea Rock Gardens

Vintage Portsmouth & Southsea poster

You know we love a bit of Vintage Portsmouth & Southsea here at Strong Island. Not too much info on this one, perfect for holidays though. The flickr link states the photo of the poster was taken in Eastney, but I’m not sure where.

Via : Bob Franklin

Tags: Southsea Poster

HMS Vanguard (1960)

Man, these photos are pretty damn epic. Both show the HMS Vangaurd that went aground just feet away from alongside the Still & West and Spice Island in 1960.

“On 4 August 1960, when she was to be towed from Portsmouth to the breakers yard at Faslane, Scotland, the whole of the Southsea sea front was packed with people to see her off. As she was being towed towards the harbour entrance, she slewed across the harbour to the Still & West public house and went aground. She was eventually pulled off by tugs and finally made her exit from Portsmouth. Five days later she arrived at Faslane and by the spring of 1962 Vanguard ceased to exist, never having fired her guns in anger.” (from Wikipedia)

It’s also great to see that area of Old Portsmouth in detail from 50 years ago. There is no sea wall in place, some kind of out building on the corner of Spice Island, what looks like early dry dock developments and I love the way Broad Street goes straight in to the drink. See what you can see. Click the images for a much closer look.

Via : Jainbow

Tags: HMS Vanguard (1960)

Hidden Treasures

Steve Bomford gave us the heads up on this wonderful short film made up of old film footage, from the 50s to the 70s, filmed around Portsmouth and Southsea. If you like looking at some vintage Portsmouth and Southsea you will love this (really interesting to see the Guildhall before it was pedestrianised and the buildings were demolished for the council offices).