Travel:Brighton to Portsmouth. UK Sept. 15-16th /2024
- Lili Naveh
- Sep 17, 2024
- 7 min read
Updated: Feb 15
A continuation of a trip which started on Sept 10th
Canterbury - 9/10-11. (here)
Sandwich/Dover 9/13 (Here)
Brighton&Hove 9/14-15 (here)
The English weather was unbelievably wonderful this weekend. with sunny blue sky and warm temperature .
However the traffic jam on route A27 which started about an hour into the drive from Brighton, toward Portsmouth and which should have taken only about an hour, but took us over four, was a killer.,
A back to back endless car caravan hardly moved for all that many hours due to alleged "road work", which non, could have been actually seem.....
No appropriate worming posts, to alert drivers, a head of time of any planned road work, are flagged out.
Nor digital notices over the Hwy are utilized, at least on that road, along the south coast.
Furthermore, NO U turn or escape. routes, are marked for miles, along the lingering road. as to ease the stand-still traffic.
Almost the entire day was wasted by sitting in the car, during which I was contemplating, how on earth, in such inefficiency, had the British ever won in battles?
.
On the way, passing the following towns:
Worthing is a seaside town and borough in West Sussex, 11 miles west of Brighton, and 2 hours drive from London, at the foot of the South Downs,
With a current population of 113K. Worthing was once, for many centuries, a small mackerel fishing hamlet .which amazingly transformed.
In the late 18th c it developed into an elegant Georgian seaside resort and attracted the well-known and wealthy of the day,
With now a days, a financial services center, the Dome.- one of Britain's oldest cinemas, as well as with writers Oscar Wilde and Harold Pinter, who lived and worked in the town, these are the the main attractions to visiting the town.
This much-conserved small historic town has a medieval castle and Roman Catholic cathedral. The River Arun runs through the eastern side of the town.
Which is located 18 miles west of Worthing and about 2 hours drive South from London, is a cathedral city,
It is the only city in West Sussex and is its county town. It was a Roman and Anglo-Saxon settlement and a major market town from those times through Norman and medieval times to the present day
By the time we arrived late afternoon to Portsmouth and checked into the hotel (unremarkable one) which was out of town, and required a car ride to get to the town's center and port, hardly any day time was left to properly explore, so most was done the following morning.
Portsmouth is an 'island city' and the only island city. in the UK, located about 2.5 hours drive away southwest from London.
Most of Portsmouth is not located primarily on the mainland but on on Portsea Island, off the south coast of England in the Solent. - a strait between the Isle of Wight and UK mainland.
The port city of Hampshire, is the most densely populated city in the UK with about 210,000 inhabitants
The city has been one of the main homes of the British Royal Navy since 1194, and is still an important seaport.
The naval base on England’s south coast, is mostly spread across Portsea Island. and is known for its maritime heritage and Portsmouth Historic past.
Portsmouth International Port - the second busiest in the UK after Dover, is a commercial cruise ship and ferry port for international destinations.handling around three million passengers a year.
The Romans built in the late 3rd c,
Portus Adurni -now called Portchester Castle- a medieval fortress that was developed within the walls of the Roman Saxon at nearby Portchester - a village about 4 miles northwest of Portsmouth.
This Fort Site overlooking Portsmouth harbor, has been a Roman fortress, a Norman stronghold and even a prisoner of war camp during the Napleonic Wars. The well-preserved remains of the Roman fort on which climbing to the top of the 30-metre (100 ft) offers views over the Solent. is worth the effort.
The city which has been a significant Royal Navy dockyard and base for centuries, was founded in 1180 by Anglo-Norman merchant Jean de Gisors in the south-west area of Portsea Island, a location now known as Old Portsmouth
The roads still largely follow their original layout in the area of the original medieval town. and its many historic buildings.
The first dry-dock ever built. was constructed by Henry VII in 1496.
By the early-19th c Portsmouth was the most heavily fortified city in the world, and was considered "the world's greatest naval port" at the height of the British Empire throughout Pax Britannica.
During the Second World War, the city was a pivotal embarkation point for the D-Day landings and was bombed extensively in the Portsmouth Blitz, which resulted in the deaths of 930 people.
In 1982, a large Royal Navy task force departed from Portsmouth for the Falklands War. Her Majesty's Yacht Britannia was formerly based in Portsmouth and oversaw the transfer of Hong Kong in 1997, after which Britannia was retired from royal service, decommissioned and relocated to Leith as a museum ship.
The Dockyard
The naval base - an area of HM Naval Base Portsmouth is open to the public and contains the National Museum of the Royal Navy and Portsmouth Historic Dockyard which we visited, and which has a collection of historic warships, including:
Mary Rose,- a warship of the Tudor navy, which sank in 1545 and was salvaged in 1982. One-third of the hull survives and has been on display in a museum since May 2013
Flagship of Horatio Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar. the HMS Victory - the world's oldest naval ship still in commission. She has been open to the public for nearly 200 years, and has been in her current dry dock since 1922.
The Mary Rose Museum HMS Victory 1759. 1510 Mary Rose
HMS Warrior, the Royal Navy's first ironclad warship, the world's first Armour-plated, iron-hulled warship when she was launched in 1860. Opened to the public in 1987
The visit on the ship
The Docks area
At the Naval Museum
The former HMS Vernon 1876 shore establishment or "stone frigate" of the Royal Navy which was a Torpedo Branch also known as the Torpedo School, is named after the ship HMS Vernon which served as part of its floating base. It has been redeveloped into a large retail outlet destination known as Gunwharf Quays - shopping center which opened in 2001 located in the Portsea area
Portsmouth's historic dockyard was used in the filming of Les Misérables.
The waterfront and Portsmouth Harbour are dominated by the Spinnaker Tower, one of the UK tallest structures at 560 feet (170 m). located in the hugely popular Gunwharf Quays shopping and leisure destination.
75-80 Queen St, Portsea, 023 9298 2182
A short walk from Portsmouth Historic Dockyard , the now hotel and restaurant
is one of the oldest historic establishments in Portsmouth, and can not be missed.
The Royal Maritime Hotel was first established here at Queen Street in 1850. As the Sailors' Home it was set up to look after sailors and mariners who were"between ships". The Royal Navy treated its sailors terribly when they returned, after two or three years at sea, an unkindness the club's founders could not bear.
The Sailor's Home aimed to provide respectable home comforts as well as a safe place.
The club gained 'Royal patronage' in 1855, after Prince Albert visited the hotel. Queen Victoria then became patron. There have been royal visits throughout the 20th c too, including Queen Elizabeth II in 1986 (patron till 2007) and King Charles III (patron since 2007) a year later.
Like so many others, the Club did not make it through World War II unscathed. On 10th January 1941, half the building was bombed, only for the remainder to be destroyed two months later on 10th March. However, the hotel was not abandoned. The Royal Navy built it again from the ground up, reopening it in 1952. It has been a home from home for many, many tourists visitors. ever since
The food we had at the restaurant was not great, but the historic flair compensated for it
Encores and Chains are the main decorative artifact of the city's streets
Homage to Charles Dickens
Portsmouth is the birthplace of notable people such as author Charles Dickens, engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, former Prime Minister James Callaghan, and actor Peter Sellers to name a few
393 Old Commercial Road ,contains some of his prized personal possessions,
The statue in the historic dockyard commemorates the generations of Portsea children who enjoyed mudlarking here - entertaining travellers by retrieving coins, they threw into the mud below the bridge to the harbor station and Gosport Ferry.
Boys and girls would scramble to find the money tossed down, sometimes diving into the mud, performing handstands or dipping their heads in it
Many Portsea families lived in poverty, so the small change was welcomed.
Other more honorable professional opportunities are offered in Portsmouth U. Establish in 1870 the University of Portsmouth enrolls 23,000 students.Due to its coastal location, the school provided technical instruction to engineers and skilled workers, who often graduated to work at the city docks,
Driving along the Sea Port but also within a walking distance is the D-Day Museum and the majestic, Queens Hotel, more suited to stay in when visiting in town.
The Queens Hotel Portsmouth
Clarence Parade, Osborne Rd, Southsea,, 023 9282 2466
The Queens Hotel Edwardian building.sits on the edge of Southsea Common - vast open space/park that was purchased from the War Department in 1922. .It is just a few minutes walk from the beach. that hosts variety of events, such as the award-winning Victorious Festival and the Kite Festival. ,
What is now the 4-star Queens Hotel was originally known as Southsea House, built by the architect Augustus Livesay in 1861. Southsea House was a large private house owned by Sir John and Lady Morris and was later transformed into one of the first hotels in Southsea by William Kemp Junior.
The Spinakker Tower can be seen from the hotel's Bar and Garden and Southsea Castle, from where Henry VIII watched his beloved Mary Rose sink,( 10-minute walk)
The date of the arrival of the first Jewish settlers in Portsmouth is not known. but it is probable that after Cromwell's invitation a few of the Spanish refugees and safety and shelter here, as there are some unmistakably Spanish names among former members of the congregation. It is said that he Portsmouth (Portsea) congregation is one of the oldest in the English provinces, having been founded in 1747 with a rabbinate of its own.
To Be Continued...
More attractions (here)
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