GREAT BRITAIN: Portsmouth - city's museum and tall ships (Hampshire, UK)
Channel: Londisland
Date: 2020-10-27

GREAT BRITAIN: Portsmouth - city's museum and tall ships (Hampshire, UK)

Portsmouth is an English port city primarily built on Portsea Island in the county of Hampshire. It is also known colloquially as Pompey, a nickname shared with HMNB Portsmouth and the Portsmouth Football Club. It is the United Kingdom's only island city. Portsmouth is situated 70 miles (110 km) south-west of London and 19 miles (31 km) south-east of Southampton. Portsmouth's population was 238,800 in the 2019 UK Census. The city forms part of the South Hampshire metropolitan area, which includes the nearby city of Southampton and the towns of Gosport, Fareham, Waterlooville, Havant and Eastleigh.

Portsmouth's history can be traced back to Roman Britain. A significant naval port for centuries, it has the world's oldest dry dock. Portsmouth was England's first line of defence during the 1545 French invasion. By the early nineteenth century, the world's first mass-production line was set up in Portsmouth Dockyard's Block Mills; this made it the world's most industrialised site, and the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution. Portsmouth was the most heavily-fortified town in the world and was considered "the world's greatest naval port" at the height of the British Empire, during the Pax Britannica. The Palmerston Forts were built around Portsmouth in 1859 in anticipation of another invasion from continental Europe.