page_title: Portsmouth
section_title: Government and politics
hierarchical_section_title: Portsmouth / Government and politics
caption_attribution_description: English: Portsmouth Guildhall from the front
context_page_description: Portsmouth is an English port city primarily built on Portsea Island in the county of Hampshire. It is also known as Pompey, a nickname shared with HMNB Portsmouth and the Portsmouth Football Club. The United Kingdom's only island city, it is 70 miles south-west of London and 19 miles south-east of Southampton. Portsmouth's population was 205,100 in the 2011 UK Census. The city is part of the South Hampshire metropolitan area, which also includes the 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.
context_section_description: The city is administered by Portsmouth City Council, a unitary authority which is responsible for local affairs. Portsmouth was granted its first charter in 1194. In the early 20th century, its boundaries were extended to all of Portsea Island; they were further extended in 1920 and 1932, including areas of the mainland and adjacent villages such as Drayton and Farlington. On 1 April 1974, it formed the second tier of local government (below Hampshire County Council); Portsmouth and Southampton became administratively independent of Hampshire with the creation of the unitary authority on 1 April 1997. The city is divided into two parliamentary constituencies, Portsmouth South and Portsmouth North, represented in the House of Commons by Stephen Morgan of the Labour Party and Penny Mordaunt of the Conservative Party.
  The city council has 42 councillors. After the May 2018 local elections, the Liberal Democrats formed a minority administration (16 councillors) supported by Labour (five councillors). The Conservatives have 19, including lord mayor Lee Mason. Two councillors are independent. Councillors are returned from 14 wards; each ward has three councillors, who serve four-year terms. The leader of the council is the Liberal Democrat, Gerald Vernon-Jackson. The lord mayor usually has a one-year term.
  The council is based in the civic offices, which house the tax-support, housing-benefits, resident-services, and municipal-functions departments. They are in Guildhall Square, with the Portsmouth Guildhall and Portsmouth Central Library. The Guildhall, a symbol of Portsmouth, is a cultural venue. It was designed by Leeds-based architect William Hill, who began it in the neo-classical style in 1873 at a cost of £140,000. It was opened to the public in 1890.
caption: The neo-classical Portsmouth Guildhall and surrounding civic offices are the centre of government.
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