Whale Island, Hampshire

HMS King Alfred is a Royal Naval Reserve shore establishment in Portsmouth, England. The unit has a complement of over 200 reservists and provides training facilities to other lodger units, including the local Royal Marines Reserve (RMR) City of London (Portsmouth Detachment), and local University Royal Naval Unit (URNU).HMS King Alfred previously opened on 1 April 1994 on Whale Island and was commissioned on 8 June that year, replacing the closed units at HMS Sussex and HMS Wessex. In April 2021, it moved to the renovated "Semaphore Tower", within HMNB Portsmouth. The unit is affiliated with Southampton University Royal Naval Unit and Bearwood College Combined Cadet Force and provides local representation at events including the Ship Festival, in Chichester; and the Remembrance Sunday services in Portsmouth and Hove. Members of the unit are also honorary freedom holders of the City of Portsmouth. Penny Mordaunt, the local MP and former Secretary of State for Defence, was an acting sub-lieutenant there from 2010 until 2015.

HMS Bristol (D23) was a Type 82 destroyer, the only vessel of her class to be built for the Royal Navy. Bristol was intended to be the first of a class of large destroyers to escort the CVA-01 aircraft carriers projected to come into service in the early 1970s but the rest of the class and the CVA-01 carriers were cancelled as a result of the 1966 Defence White Paper which cut defence spending. Following a long career which included the Falklands War, she was converted into a training ship in 1987. In 1991 while part of the Dartmouth training squadron, she suffered a boiler explosion that damaged the vessel beyond economical repair. No longer having enough value to be sold to another navy, she became a Harbour Training ship at HMS Excellent. She was decommissioned in Portsmouth on 28 October 2020.

HMS Excellent is a Royal Navy "stone frigate" (shore establishment) sited on Whale Island near Portsmouth in Hampshire. HMS Excellent is itself part of the Maritime Warfare School, with a headquarters at HMS Collingwood, although a number of lodger units are resident within the site including the offices of the First Sea Lord.

Portsmouth International Port, also known as Portsmouth Continental Ferry Port, is the harbour authority for the city of Portsmouth, Hampshire, located on the south coast of Great Britain.

His Majesty's Naval Base, Portsmouth (HMNB Portsmouth) is one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the Royal Navy (the others being HMNB Clyde and HMNB Devonport). Portsmouth Naval Base is part of the city of Portsmouth; it is located on the eastern shore of Portsmouth Harbour, north of the Solent and the Isle of Wight. For centuries it was officially known as HM Dockyard, Portsmouth: as a Royal Dockyard, Portsmouth functioned primarily as a state-owned facility for building, repairing and maintaining warships; for a time it was the largest industrial site in the world.From the 1970s, the term 'Naval Base' began to be used for Portsmouth (and other Royal Dockyards), acknowledging a greater focus on personnel and support elements alongside the traditional industrial emphases. In 1984 Portsmouth's Royal Dockyard function was significantly downsized and downgraded, and was formally renamed the 'Fleet Maintenance and Repair Organisation' (FMRO). The FMRO was privatised in 1998; in 2002, shipbuilding (which had not taken place on site since the late 1960s) resumed in the form of block construction, but this again ceased in 2014.Today, Portsmouth is the home base for two-thirds of the Royal Navy surface fleet, including the two aircraft carriers, HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales. Naval logistics, accommodation and messing are provided on site, with personnel support functions (e.g. medical and dental; education; pastoral and welfare) provided by Defence Equipment and Support. Other functions and departments, e.g. Navy Command Headquarters support staff, are also accommodated within the Naval Base. The base is additionally home to a number of commercial shore activities, including the ship repair and maintenance facility operated by BAE Systems Maritime. The base is the oldest in the Royal Navy, and it has been an important part of the Senior Service's history and the defence of the British Isles for centuries. It is home to one of the oldest surviving drydocks in the world. The former Block Mills are of international significance, having been the first factory in the world to employ steam-powered machine tools for mass production. The Royal Naval Museum has been on the site since 1911. In 1985 a partnership between the Ministry of Defence and Portsmouth City Council created the Portsmouth Naval Base Property Trust to manage part of the historic south-west corner of the Naval Base, under a 99-year lease, as an heritage area, the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. It allows members of the public to visit important maritime attractions such as Mary Rose, HMS Victory, HMS Warrior and the National Museum of the Royal Navy.

Tipner is a residential district of Portsmouth, located on the north western corner of Portsea Island in southern England. It includes a housing estate, built during the 1930s, that used to function as married quarters for the Royal Navy, a yachting club, allotments, a primary school, The Harbour special school, and indoor and outdoor rifle ranges. There is a nearby sports centre at Alexandra Park. Tipner is bounded to the north and west by the M275 motorway and Tipner Lake. To the south is Stamshaw.

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.

The Portsmouth Block Mills form part of the Portsmouth Dockyard at Portsmouth, Hampshire, England, and were built during the Napoleonic Wars to supply the British Royal Navy with pulley blocks. They started the age of mass-production using all-metal machine tools and are regarded as one of the seminal buildings of the British Industrial Revolution. They are also the site of the first stationary steam engines used by the Admiralty.Since 2003 English Heritage has been undertaking a detailed survey of the buildings and the records relating to the machines.

St Ann's Church is an Anglican chapel within His Majesty's Naval Base Portsmouth. It is regarded as the spiritual home of the Royal Navy, and contains numerous memorials to men lost at sea.The original church was built in 1704, on the site of what is now Admiralty House. The present church was opened in 1786, and is built in red brick in Flemish bond. It was possibly designed by Marquand, a Navy Board surveyor, working under Samuel Wyatt at Admiralty House. The contractors were Thomas Parlby & Sons. The church suffered some bomb damage in May 1941, and was restored in 1955–6. As the oldest surviving chapel in a navy yard, it was Grade II listed on 25 September 1972.In October 2012, the church held ceremonies marking the 30th anniversary of the Falklands War, attended by HRH The Princess Royal. As of 2015 the current chaplain is Revd. James Francis, RN. The HMS Royal Oak Association holds an Act of Remembrance annually at the church on the Saturday nearest to 13 October, the date of the sinking of the battleship HMS Royal Oak (08) at Scapa Flow in 1939. At the service on 9 October 2019, eighty years after the ship was torpedoed, a memorial stone was unveiled in the church by HRH The Princess Royal. Although the last survivor died in 2016, some one hundred and fifty relatives and descendants of the crew attended.

St Agatha's Church is a parish church in the Landport district of Portsmouth. It is now affiliated to the Roman Catholic Church through the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. It is situated on the Marketway next to the Cascades Shopping Centre. It was built between 1893 and 1895 for the Church of England and is a Grade II* listed building.

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.

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.