A Brief History of Portsmouth

The city of Portsmouth started about 1180 when a merchant called Jean De Gisors founded a little town in South-West corner of Portsea Island. Jean De Gisors was a merchant who owned a fleet of ships. He was also a landowner who owned land on Portsea Island.
Henry VIII built a castle, east of the town, overlooking the sea. Southsea castle, as it is called, was ready in 1544. However Portsmouth still had only wooden walls. They were replaced by stone walls in stages between 1568 and 1588.
Following the end of the civil war in 1646 Portsmouth prospered. In 1650 a ship called the Portsmouth was launched in the Dockyard. It was the first ship to be built in the town for over 100 years. Between 1650 and 1660 12 ships were built in Portsmouth and the town was very busy. Its population had probably grown to over 3,000.
At the end of the 17th century and the beginning of the 18th century the dockyard continued to expand. New docks and warehouses were built. A church dedicated to St Anne was built in 1704. Rows of houses were built in the dockyard for senior officers who needed to be close to their work. A naval academy for training naval officers was opened in the dockyard in 1733.
In 1704 royal permission was given for people to build houses near the dockyard. So a new suburb called Portsmouth Common grew. In 1792 it changed its name to Portsea.
This new suburb soon outgrew the original town, which became known as Old Portsmouth.
In 1811 Portsmouth gained its first piped water supply, but you had to pay to be connected and only the rich and middle class could afford it. In 1820 the Portsea Improvement Commissioners installed gas street lighting. Old Portsmouth followed in 1823.
In 1809 a new suburb began to grow. It became known as Southsea after the castle. The first houses were built for skilled workers in the 'mineral' streets (Silver Street, Nickel Street etc).
South of Southsea were two marshes. One the Little Morass stood near Old Portsmouth. It was drained in 1820-23. Another larger marsh, the Great Morass, existed south of Albert Road. It was not drained till the late 19th century.
Like all cities in the 19th century Portsmouth was dirty and unhealthy. In 1848-49 more than 800 people died in a cholera epidemic. However things improved later in the century. In 1865-70 the council built sewers. In 1875 a bylaw stated that any house within 100 feet of a main sewer must be connected to it. Portsmouth had a water supply as early as 1811
There were other improvements in amenities in Portsmouth. In 1836 Portsmouth gained its first modern police force. In 1878 the first public park, Victoria Park, opened. In 1883 Portsmouth gained its first public library. In 1885 the first telephone exchange opened. In 1894-96 streetlights in Portsmouth were converted from gas to electricity.
In 1847 the railway reached Portsmouth.
The fortifications around Portsmouth were rebuilt. The old walls around the town were now obsolete. They were demolished in the 1860's.
The city continued to grow. By 1910 the villages of Copnor and Milton had been engulfed by the expanding city. Growth also spread north to Hilsea. In 1920 the boundaries of the city were extended to include the village of Cosham north of Portsea Island and in 1932 to include Drayton and Farlington to the north east. This area was growing rapidly and soon all these villages became suburbs of the growing city. In 1934-36 Highbury estate was built south of Cosham.
The first council houses were built in 1911 in Portsea in Curzon Howe Road. By 1939 the population of Portsmouth reached 260,000.
In transport the old horse drawn trams were replaced by electric ones in 1901-03. But the electric trams were replaced closed in 1935-36.
In 1922 the council purchased Southsea Common, a stretch of land by the sea, and laid it out with gardens, bowling greens and tennis courts.
During World War II 930 people were killed by bombing. Also 6,625 houses were destroyed (nearly 10% of the total) and a further 6,549 were severely damaged.
After the war the most pressing need was for new housing. At first the council erected prefabs (houses made in sections in factories that could be fitted together is a few days). Some were erected on bomb sites. Others were erected on Portsdown hill above Cosham. More than 700 prefab houses were built in 1945-47.
In February 1946 the council began to build more permanent houses, most of them off Portsea Island. A new estate was built at Paulsgrove, north west of the city. The first houses were built there in 1946. The estate was complete by 1953. The population of Paulsgrove now stands at 15,000.
Another estate was built at Leigh Park about 10 miles North East of Portsmouth. The first houses were ready in 1949 but building went on till 1974. By then the population of Leigh Park had risen to 40,000.
In the 1960's and early 1970's a whole section of central Portsmouth was rebuilt including Landport, Somerstown and Buckland. As well as demolishing slums the council gave people grants to improve their homes.
In the 1980's shopping malls were built, the Bridge Centre in Fratton and the Cascades Centre in Commercial Road.
By 1951 46% of the manufacturing jobs in the city were in shipbuilding. By 1966 this had fallen to only 14%. The dockyard workforce was drastically reduced.
Traditional industries like brewing and corset making vanished but electrical and electronic engineering became a major employer.
Tourism also became a major industry. Mary Rose the Tudor warship was raised from the seabed in 1982 and became a museum. The D Day museum opened in 1984 and in 1987 HMS Warrior, Britains first iron warship, was moved to Portsmouth.
In 2001 a new shopping centre opened at Gunwharf. Also in 2001 Millennium Promenade opened. The Pompey Centre was built in 2003. Portsmouth's newest tourist attraction, the Spinnaker Tower, opened in 2005.
Today the population of Portsmouth is 186,000.