Spitbank Fort

The Portsmouth Naval Memorial, sometimes known as Southsea Naval Memorial, is a war memorial in Portsmouth, Hampshire, England, on Southsea Common beside Clarence Esplanade, between Clarence Pier and Southsea Castle. The memorial commemorates approximately 25,000 British and Commonwealth sailors who were lost in the World Wars, around 10,000 sailors in the First World War, and 15,000 in the Second World War. The memorial features a central obelisk, with names of the dead on bronze plaques arranged around the memorial according to the year of death. To commemorate sailors who had died at sea in the First World War and had no known grave, an Admiralty committee recommended building memorials at the three main naval ports in Great Britain: Chatham, Plymouth, and Portsmouth. Identical memorials at all three sites were designed by Sir Robert Lorimer, with sculpture by Henry Poole. A separate memorial in Lowestoft commemorates the lost from the Royal Naval Patrol Service; the Fleet Air Arm is commemorated in Lee-on-the-Solent; and merchant seamen are commemorated at the Liverpool Naval Memorial and the Tower Hill Memorial in London. The Royal Naval Division War Memorial is on Horseguards Parade in London. The memorial is made of Portland stone, with a prominent central obelisk topped by a metal finial. Steps lead up to a plinth bearing bronze inscription plaques fixed to the obelisk's base bearing the names of the lost. Each corner projects as a buttress, surmounted by a statue of a reclining lion, beneath a stepped base to the obelisk. The four-sided obelisk tapers slightly to a stepped top with an elaborate finial with corner ships prows and bronze supports to a verdigris copper ball. The memorial was unveiled on 15 October 1924 by Albert, Duke of York (later King George VI). The memorial was extended after the Second World War, to a design by Sir Edward Maufe. Names of those lost in the Second World War are recorded on panels set into the low walls of an enclosure added to the north, leading to a barrel-vaulted pavilion on each side. The additional sculpture was created by Charles Wheeler, William McMillan, and Esmond Burton. The additions were unveiled by Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, on 29 April 1953. The memorial is maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. It became a listed building in 1972 and was upgraded to Grade I in May 2016 for the centenary of the Battle of Jutland.

Southsea Castle, historically also known as Chaderton Castle, South Castle and Portsea Castle, is an artillery fort originally constructed by Henry VIII on Portsea Island, Hampshire, in 1544. It formed part of the King's Device programme to protect against invasion from France and the Holy Roman Empire, and defended the Solent and the eastern approach to Portsmouth. The castle had a square central keep, two rectangular gun platforms to the east and west, and two angled bastions to the front and rear, and was an early English example of the trace italienne-style of fortification popular on the Continent. The Cowdray engraving of the Battle of the Solent in 1545 depicted Henry VIII visiting the castle. Despite several serious fires, it remained in service and saw brief action at the start of the English Civil War in 1642 when it was stormed by Parliamentary forces. The castle was expanded in the 1680s by Sir Bernard de Gomme and, after a period of neglect in the 18th century, was redesigned again in 1814 during the Napoleonic Wars. After a brief period of use as a military prison in the 1840s, the fortification was expanded in the 1850s and 1860s with additional gun batteries on the east and west sides. The defences were upgraded throughout the century due to the fears of a French invasion and formed part of the plan for defending Portsmouth during the First World War. In the interwar years some of the fortifications were stood down, but the castle saw service again in the Second World War, when it was involved in Operation Grasp, the seizure of French naval vessels in Portsmouth harbour. In 1960, Southsea Castle, by now obsolete, was sold to Portsmouth City Council. It was restored to its pre-1850 appearance and opened as a tourist attraction, receiving over 90,000 visitors from 2011–12.

HM LCT 7074 is the last surviving Landing Craft, Tank (LCT) in the UK. LCT 7074 is an amphibious assault ship for landing tanks, other vehicles and troops on beachheads. Built in 1944 by Hawthorn Leslie and Company, Hebburn, the Mark 3 LCT 7074 was part of the 17th LCT Flotilla during Operation Neptune in June 1944. LCT 7074 was decommissioned in 1947, and used by the Master Mariners' Club of Liverpool as their club ship Landfall. She served as a floating nightclub in the 60s and 70s and was acquired by the Warship Preservation Trust in the late 1990s. She was moored at Birkenhead for restoration but the Trust went into liquidation and she later sank in the dock. The vessel was raised by the National Museum of the Royal Navy in October 2014 and transported by sea to Portsmouth for restoration.

The Palmerston Forts that encircle Portsmouth were built in response to the 1859 Royal Commission dealing with the perceived threat of a French invasion. The forts were intended to defend the Dockyard in Portsmouth. Construction was carried out by the Royal Engineers and civilian contractors (under Royal Engineer supervision). In addition to the newly constructed forts, extensive work was carried out on existing fortifications. The Portsmouth defences can be split into four distinct groups of forts, comprising four sea forts built in the Solent, a group of forts on Portsea Island, a group of forts along Portsdown Hill overlooking Portsmouth, and a group of forts on the Gosport peninsula. As well as these forts surrounding Portsmouth, further protection for Portsmouth was provided by additional Palmerston forts on the Isle of Wight.

The D-Day Story (formerly the D-Day Museum) is a visitor attraction located in Southsea, Portsmouth in Hampshire, England. It tells the story of Operation Overlord during the Normandy D-Day landings. Originally opened as the D-Day Museum in 1984 by Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, it reopened as the D-Day Story, following a refurbishment funded by a £5 million Heritage Lottery grant, in March 2018. The museum building was designed by the then city architect Ken Norrish.

Ultrasauros (or The Southsea Dinosaur) was a 53 feet (16 m) sculpture of an Ultrasauros by Welsh artists Heather and Ivan Morison. The work was installed on Southsea Common in Portsmouth, England in 2010.The sculpture was inspired by the work of palaeontologist James A. Jensen, who in the 1970s believed that a discovered set of giant bones belonged to the largest dinosaur that ever lived, which he dubbed "Ultrasauros". More than a decade later, however, it was revealed that his discovery was in fact a chimera, composed of bones from two different brachiosaur-type species. The Ultrasauros sculpture took three years to plan and build. The sculpture was constructed by thirty factory workers in Serbia in a small village outside the city of Kragujevac. The construction team was composed of engineers, welders, assemblers and model makers were all ex-employees of the Zastava car factory (where Yugo cars were manufactured) that was Kragujevac's main employer, and Luna Park was made from the same materials used to model Yugos.The sculpture was brought to the UK in August 2010 with the support of Portsmouth's Aspex Gallery. It attracted over 100,000 people during the exhibition, and the people of Portsmouth were so taken with the dinosaur that the leader of the local council, Gerald Vernon-Jackson hoped to make it a permanent fixture following a tour to firstsite in Colchester and Chapter in Cardiff However, at the end of September 2010, in the week before it was due to be moved, Ultrasauros caught alight and burned down overnight. Initial suspicions were that the fire was arson, but it was later determined to be due to an electrical fault.In 2021 a miniature version of the original sculpture was installed on the seafront to serve as a permanent tribute to the original.

Southsea Hoverport is adjacent to Clarence Pier in the Southsea area of Portsmouth in southern England. From here frequent hovercraft services leave for Ryde on the Isle of Wight. The journey time is quicker than the conventional boats that sail from Gunwharf Quay, elsewhere in Portsmouth, but the hovercraft are more prone to service curtailment in inclement weather. Another problem are connections from here as when the service first started in the mid-20th century much of the land closer to Portsmouth and Southsea station was already occupied by both residential and naval units. To help alleviate this problem Stagecoach run the "Hoverbus" linking the terminal with Portsmouth and Southsea station and Portsmouth city centre. The nearest railway station is Portsmouth Harbour railway station, although Portsmouth and Southsea station is not much further away.

Queens Hotel is a luxury hotel in Southsea, Portsmouth, Hampshire. The current Queens Hotel is placed on the site of Southsea House, built in 1861 by architect Augustus Livesay, which was built for Sir John and Lady Morris. In 1865, due to boom in construction and tourism, Southsea house was converted into the Queen's Hotel by William Kemp Junior. It was one of Portmouth's first hotels, and it focused on the leisure and relaxation for the upper class. At 4:20pm on 8 December 1901, a fire gutted the entire hotel, leaving only the two outer walls that face Osborne Road and Clarence Parade. On 11 December 1901, it was deemed safe to enter the site and two missing chambermaids were discovered, dead, due to being trapped by falling rubble in the basement. In early 1902, plans were submit by the hotel owner at the time, G. H. King, to rebuild the hotel to cover the original footprint. The new hotel was to be much grander and more purpose-built, to include 63 rooms for visitors, and 33 for staff. The architect of the rebuild was London based T.W. Cutler. He was to design the hotel in the Edwardian baroque style in brown terracotta. This was a rising popular style across the British Empire in 1901. Designs were grand and lavish and no expense was spared. The hotel had to be designed to make a statement. The book England describes the hotel as a "Magnificent Edwardian hotel overlooking the Common, with ornate stone-carved balconies and countless neoclassical decorative flourishes". The hotel contains 74 rooms and has two bars and a restaurant. An episode of Mr. Bean starring Rowan Atkinson (Mr. Bean in Room 426) was filmed at this hotel in 1992, first aired in February 1993. The hotel was listed at Grade II by Historic England on 20 October 2020.

Clarence Pier is an amusement pier in Portsmouth, Hampshire. It is located next to Southsea Hoverport. Unlike most seaside piers in the UK, the pier does not extend very far out to sea and instead goes along the coast.

The Portsmouth Pyramids Centre (also known as the Pyramids) is an indoor leisure complex in Southsea, Portsmouth, Hampshire, England. It has a live arena, leisure gym and function rooms. The function room, located next door to the indoor leisure complex, is, along with the Portsmouth Guildhall and The Wedgewood Rooms, a popular venue for live music. Artists that have performed at Pyramids Centre include Roger Taylor, Feeder, You Me at Six, Bring Me the Horizon, Asking Alexandria, Example, The Darkness, Arctic Monkeys & Gallows.

Knight & Lee was a department store in Southsea, Hampshire, England. The store was acquired by the John Lewis Partnership in 1933 and became the only provincial department store in the group not to trade under the John Lewis & Partners name. The shop officially closed on 13 July 2019. The proceeds from the sale of the freehold would be used to bring down the group's pension fund deficit.

Portsmouth High School is a private day school for girls in Southsea, a district in the southern coastal city of Portsmouth, England. Founded by the Girls' Public Day School Trust in 1882, it is one of the Trust's smaller schools. The Good Schools Guide described the school as "a super no-frills choice: big enough to appeal to almost any girl, but not at the expense of the personal touch".