Portsmouth is known as the Great Waterfront City!
It is teeming with top-notch attractions….amazing things to do….. an event calendar that runs all year long! What else do we want? 🌟
If you’re bored from the monotonous life, check out our list of these fascinating facts about Portsmouth!
Get….Set….Goooooooooo!!!🌏
Fascinating Portsmouth Facts
Pompey: You can call Portsmouth by this name!
Although the roots of Portsmouth’s nickname….Pompey, are hotly contested….it is a well-known truth!
Some claim that it was due to sailors’ inebriated pronunciation of Portsmouth. 🧭
Others claim it originated from the French ship “La Pompee,” which was taken in 1793 at Portsmouth.
Due to the fact that Pom. P. is an acronym for Portsmouth Point, it might also have arisen from the ship logs!!
American cities have names inspired by Portsmouth!
There are reportedly at least seven more American cities with the same name!
Yes!!! You read that right….
There are separate Portsmouths in…. Portland, Ohio, Michigan, Virginia, Iowa, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and an abandoned fishing community in North Carolina!
The rewards for Portsmouth’s efforts!
Portsmouth….one of the most notable ports in the UK!
It has long served as an important naval port and is the location of the oldest dry dock in existence.
100% of the Jersey potatoes, 100% of the Moroccan citrus fruits, and 70% of the UK’s bananas are processed in Portsmouth Harbor.
Well, a win-win situation for the natives of the island as well as the UK!
The star-struck Portsmouth!
Arnold Schwarzenegger…..a California governor and Hollywood star, formerly resided in Portsmouth and attended Southsea Gym.
John Bonham Carter….who served as the Portsmouth MP from 1816 to 1838, is the great-great-grandfather of Helena Bonham Carter!
Peter Sellers, a comedian, and actor….was born in Southsea and at the age of just two weeks!
He even had his stage debut there alongside his parents, who were also performers in a traveling variety act!
Guess the population! Higher than London!
Portsmouth is the only city in the UK with a population density higher than London!
It is a highly intriguing fact about the city.
The city…..which is 15.54 square miles in size, is home to over 200,000 people!!
Portsmouth is a center for literature!
Charles Dickens….the well-known author of Great Expectations and Oliver Twist, was born in Portsmouth.
Even after that…he added the city to Nicholas Nickleby.
As the main character is also from Portsmouth….the city appears in the Jane Austen book Mansfield Park. 🌁
Rudyard Kipling, H. G. Wells, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, were among the other literary giants who lived in Portsmouth.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle worked as a doctor in Southsea and wrote fiction as he waited for patients!
Amazing…isn’t it?
Portsmouth is more ancient than you may imagine!
Yes… you heard it right!
The earliest extant route map of Great Britain shows Portsmouth!
Portsmouth is identified as “Portis Mouth” on the Gough Map….which is thought to have been created around 1360!
It features 600 towns and cities.
It is represented by a single red-roofed structure!
Spinnaker Tower: Portsmouth’s landmark!
Can you imagine?? A tower that may swing!
Although the Spinnaker Tower in Portsmouth was constructed using 11,000 cubic meters of concrete, it was structurally intended to swing in the wind!
The 560-foot (170-meter) Portsmouth Harbor landmark observation tower may stretch up to six inches (15 cm) in strong gusts.
You may visit this unusual site …… it’s less than a 20-minute walk from your University of Portsmouth lodging.
Gosport Ferry: The way of transportation!
The Gosport Ferry has been around for many years!
In 1809 it was just a single-ended rowing boat known as a “Wherry.”
Contrast this with the current huge ferry boats that go between Gosport and Portsmouth with 297 people!
An intriguing fact regarding Portsmouth’s Gosport Ferry is ….. in some cases, using the ferry might be both quicker and less expensive than driving!
The Portsmouth football championship!
Portsmouth Football Club holds the FA Cup Championship for the longest period of time.
Not to detract from the triumph…..but the competition was mostly postponed for 7 years after Portsmouth defeated Wolverhampton Wanderers in 1939 due to World War 2!
In AD 501, “Port and his two sons Beida and Maegla came to Britain with two ships in the place which is called Portes mutha and killed a young British man…a very noble man,” according to the ninth-century Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.
It is the first time the name Portsmouth is recorded in a written source!
Messum’s Court is in Portsmouth!
Messum’s Court, which extended from Prospect Row to St. Mary’s Street in what is now Old Portsmouth!
It was known as Squeeze Gut Alley. 🏞
It was extremely narrow at the eastern end!!
Uluru and Portsmouth are only 9k miles away!
The distance from Portsmouth to Uluru, an enormous sandstone rock in central Australia that was formerly known as Ayer’s Rock, is 9,366 miles.
It was given that name in honor of Sir Henry Ayers, a dockworker’s son who was born at Portsea in 1821 and served as South Australia’s premier five times.
The lipstick tower: Portsmouth!
Gunwharf Quay’s “lipstick” tower’s top-floor penthouse…..which is 4,000 square feet in size and offers 360-degree views, was appraised for £4 million in 2009!
Yes! That huge amount!
The Charles Dickens ward…where 56.6% of children live in poverty…can be seen from the penthouse.
Portsmouth is home to Marilyn Cole!
Marilyn Cole…who was born in Portsmouth! Who is he?
Well….he holds the distinction of being the only British model to be named Playboy’s Playmate of the Year!
He is thought to have had the first magazine centerfold to show full-frontal nudity!
The first voyage started from Portsmouth!
On the first breadfruit voyage in 1787….HMS Bounty was commanded by Captain Bligh!
It set sail from Portsmouth for Tahiti.
His goal was to collect breadfruit trees and bring them to the West Indies so that they might be used as an inexpensive food supply for slaves.
Everything went terribly wrong!
The philanthropist J. Hanway was born here!
In 1712…Jonas Hanway was born in Portsmouth.
He started his philanthropic profession after inheriting a large sum of money. ❤️
He is renowned for being the first person to utilize an umbrella in England!
The first cooperative association of Portsmouth: In 1796!
In 1796…dockyard employees in Portsmouth founded the first cooperative association in Britain!
It started after growing tired of being taken advantage of by tradespeople.
By organizing and managing the production and distribution of products and services under a system run by and for the people…..it was intended to provide an alternative.
Jack the Painter once lived here!
One of the many aliases for an arsonist is Jack the Painter….who has been referred to as the first contemporary terrorist.
One hundred and seventy-one years after Guy Fawkes’s Gunpowder Plot…in 1776, he hid an explosive device in the dockyard rope house.
He was executed by hanging 65 feet over the dockyard gates from Britain’s highest gibbet!
Portsmouth once faced severe cholera!
A doctor bemoaned the absence of sewers in 1846 …stating that “the island of Portsea is one large cesspool.”
A cholera outbreak two years later resulted in the deaths of 152 locals, many of them children…. another 800 the following year!
Summing up
Portsmouth is a land….which feels….straight away from a fairytale!
I guess I have been able to enlighten the X-factor of curiosity about Portsmouth..within you! 💐
So, my little FACT-plorers! What are you waiting for?
I’m a former teacher (and mother of Two Childs) with a background in child development. Here to help you with play-based learning activities for kids. ( Check my Next startup Cledemy.Com)
