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The siege of Portsmouth was the siege of a Royalist garrison in Portsmouth by a Parliamentarian force conducted in the early part of the First English Civil War. The siege resulted in Portsmouth falling to Parliament after a little under a month of conflict.

The British Cartographic Society (BCS) is an association of individuals and organisations dedicated to exploring and developing the world of maps. It is a registered charity. Membership includes national mapping agencies, publishers, designers, academics, researchers, map curators, individual cartographers, GIS specialists and ordinary members of the public with an interest in maps. The BCS is regarded as one of the world's leading cartographic societies and its main publication, The Cartographic Journal, is recognised internationally. Membership of the Society can be useful for making contacts and keeping up with developments.

Portsmouth ( PORTS-məth) is a port city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. Most of Portsmouth is located on Portsea Island, off the south coast of England in the Solent. This means Portsmouth is the only English city not located primarily on the mainland. Located 74 miles (119 km) south-west of London, 50 miles (80 km) west of Brighton and Hove, and 22 miles (35 km) south-east of Southampton; Portsmouth is part of the South Hampshire conurbation. It is the most densely populated city in the United Kingdom, with a population last recorded at 208,100.Portsmouth's history can be traced to Roman times and has been a significant Royal Navy dockyard and base for centuries. Portsmouth was founded c. 1180 by Anglo-Norman merchant Jean de Gisors in the south-west area of Portsea Island, a location now known as Old Portsmouth. Around this time, de Gisors ordered the construction of a chapel dedicated to St Thomas Becket. This became a parish church by the 14th century. Portsmouth was established as a town with a royal charter on 2 May 1194. The city is home to the first drydock ever built. It was constructed by Henry VII in 1496.Portsmouth was England's first line of defence during an attempted French invasion in 1545 at the Battle of the Solent, famously notable for the sinking of the carrack Mary Rose and witnessed by King Henry VIII of England from Southsea Castle. Portsmouth has the world's oldest dry dock, "The Great Stone Dock"; originally built in 1698, rebuilt in 1769 and presently known as "No.5 Dock". The world's first mass production line was established at the naval base's Block Mills which produced pulley blocks for the Royal Navy fleet. By the early-19th century, 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. By 1859, a ring of defensive land and sea forts, known as the Palmerston Forts had been built around Portsmouth in anticipation of an invasion from continental Europe. In the 20th century, Portsmouth achieved city status on 21 April 1926. 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. HMNB Portsmouth is an operational Royal Navy base and is home to two-thirds of the UK's surface fleet. The base has long been nicknamed Pompey, a nickname it shares with the wider city of Portsmouth and Portsmouth Football Club. The naval base also contains the National Museum of the Royal Navy and Portsmouth Historic Dockyard; which has a collection of historic warships, including the Mary Rose, Lord Nelson's flagship, HMS Victory (the world's oldest naval ship still in commission), and HMS Warrior, the Royal Navy's first ironclad warship. The former HMS Vernon shore establishment has been redeveloped into a large retail outlet destination known as Gunwharf Quays which opened in 2001. Portsmouth is among the few British cities with two cathedrals: the Anglican Cathedral of St Thomas and the Roman Catholic Cathedral of St John the Evangelist. The waterfront and Portsmouth Harbour are dominated by the Spinnaker Tower, one of the United Kingdom's tallest structures at 560 feet (170 m). Southsea is Portsmouth's seaside resort, which was named after Southsea Castle. Southsea has two piers; Clarence Pier amusement park and South Parade Pier. The world's only regular hovercraft service operates from Southsea Hoverport to Ryde on the Isle of Wight. Southsea Common is a large open-air public recreation space which serves as a venue for a wide variety of annual events. The city has several mainline railway stations that connect to London Victoria and London Waterloo amongst other lines in southern England. Portsmouth International Port is a commercial cruise ship and ferry port for international destinations. The port is the second busiest in the United Kingdom after Dover, handling around three million passengers a year. The city formerly had its own airport, Portsmouth Airport, until its closure in 1973. The University of Portsmouth enrolls 23,000 students and is ranked among the world's best modern universities. Portsmouth is the birthplace of notable people such as author Charles Dickens, engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, former Prime Minister James Callaghan, actor Peter Sellers and author-journalist Christopher Hitchens.

Charles Dickens' Birthplace Museum is a writer's house museum in Landport, Portsmouth, England situated at the birthplace of the eminent English author Charles Dickens; and as such played a prominent part in the 2012 bicentennial celebrations. It is one of six museums run by Portsmouth Museums, part of Portsmouth City Council. The house has been owned by the town and then city of Portsmouth since 1904. Its interior underwent significant restoration in the 60s.

Landport is a district located on Portsea Island and is considered the city centre of modern-day Portsmouth, England. The district is centred around Commercial Road and encompasses the Guildhall, Civic Centre, Portsmouth and Southsea Station and Commercial Road central shopping area. The original historic old town of Portsmouth lies to the south of Landport and is now known as Old Portsmouth. The district of Portsea lies to the West; Somers Town and Southsea are to the south; Fratton lies to the East and the Kingston Crescent area to the north.

St Mary's Church is the main Church of England parish church for the areas of Portsea and Fratton, both located in the city of Portsmouth, Hampshire. Standing on the oldest church site on Portsea Island, the present building, amongst the largest parish churches in the country, has been described as the "finest Victorian building in Hampshire". It is at least the third church on the site and has been designated a Grade II* listed building by Historic England. Former regular worshippers here have included Charles Dickens, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, and Cosmo Lang.

St Edmund's Catholic School is a coeducational Roman Catholic secondary school, located in Portsmouth in the English county of Hampshire.It is a voluntary aided school in the trusteeship of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portsmouth, and is maintained by Portsmouth City Council. The school is named after Saint Edmund Rich, a 13th-century Archbishop of Canterbury.St Edmund's Catholic School offers GCSEs, BTECs and OCR Nationals as programmes of study for pupils.

The Royal Portsmouth Hospital in Portsmouth, England was sited in Commercial Road close to the shopping centre and near to the Portsmouth Dockyard.

The Tricorn Centre was a shopping, nightclub and car park complex in Portsmouth, Hampshire, England. It was designed in the Brutalist style by Owen Luder and Rodney Gordon and took its name from the site's shape which from the air resembled a tricorn hat. Constructed in the mid-1960s, it was demolished in 2004. It was home to one of the first Virgin Megastores and housed the largest Laser Quest arena in Europe. The centre was a well-known example of 1960s architecture, and in the 1980s it was voted the 3rd ugliest building in the UK. In 2001, BBC Radio 4 listeners voted it the most hated building in the UK, and Charles, Prince of Wales described it as "a mildewed lump of elephant droppings", although it was much admired by others, who saw it as an irreplaceable example of Brutalist architecture. Demolition of the Tricorn began on 24 March 2004 and lasted approximately nine months. As of 2022, the site is a ground level car park for the city centre.

The Bridge Shopping Centre is a small shopping centre located in Portsmouth, England. The centre was opened in May 1989 on land which was formerly home to Portsea Island Central Premises Co-Op. The centre was originally owned by Asda, who were their main tennant, until the Portsmouth City Council purchased the centre in September 2023., with plans to include new tenants and office space.

Rudmore is a district located on the western shore of Portsea Island and is part of the city of Portsmouth, England. The area used to be a residential area, mainly catering for employees of the naval dockyard and their families. It was heavily damaged by bombing during World War II. In the late 1960s and early 1970s much of the area was cleared to make way for the M275 motorway and Portsmouth International Port. The parish church was St John the Baptist, and is now flats. The church was completed in 1916 and suffered bomb damaged in world war two. Repair work took place in the 1950s and 1960s before it was converted into flats in between 1986 and 1987.Rudmore also lends its name to a major road intersection known as The Rudmore Roundabout, which connects the M275 motorway, the A3 trunk road to London and A2047 Kingston Crescent.

The Portsmouth Academy (formerly the Portsmouth Academy for Girls and before that City of Portsmouth Girls' School) is a secondary school with academy status, located in Portsmouth, Hampshire, England on St Mary's Road in the central district of Fratton near St Mary's Church. Originally established as a girls' school, it became co-educational in the 2017/18 school year.