The guide
Portsmouth
Hampshire, England
The Spinnaker Tower — 170 metres of sail-shaped steel over Portsmouth Harbour, with the Historic Dockyard beyond. (Photo: Tiqets)
Getting there
London Waterloo → Portsmouth Harbour — direct with South Western Railway, about 1h30–1h35. Roughly hourly on Sundays through the day.
Famous for
Portsmouth is Britain's great naval city — home of the Royal Navy, and the only place on earth where you can walk the decks of Nelson's HMS Victory, stand face to face with Henry VIII's Mary Rose, and then ride a glass lift 170 metres up the Spinnaker Tower, all in one afternoon. Charles Dickens was born here, the D-Day fleet sailed from here, and the world's only passenger hovercraft still flies from Southsea to the Isle of Wight.
Where to eat
Gunwharf Quays at dusk — waterfront restaurants under the Spinnaker Tower. (Photo: Retail Focus)
- The Still & West — The harbourside pub at the water's edge by the Spice Island — fish and chips with warships for company, and one of the town's best-loved rooms.
- Loch Fyne, Gunwharf Quays — Seafood restaurant on the waterfront under the tower — oysters, mussels and the harbour view.
- Southsea Beach Café — Right on the seafront by the beach — breakfast through sunset with the Solent in front of you.
- Parade Tearooms — Old-fashioned tearoom on Palmerston Road, Southsea — cream teas and proper cake.
What to do
The Mary Rose Museum — Henry VIII's warship, raised from the Solent after 437 years underwater. (Photo: Travel Assets)
Southsea seafront — promenade, beach and the long view across the Solent. (Photo: Vicky FlipFlop Travels)
- Portsmouth Historic Dockyard — HMS Victory, Nelson's flagship at Trafalgar, preserved in dry dock — plus the Mary Rose Museum and HMS Warrior. Allow half a day; the combined ticket covers all three.
- Spinnaker Tower — The 170-metre sail-shaped viewing tower — three viewing decks, high-speed lift, and the glass Sky Walk floor for the brave.
- Southsea seafront — Promenade, beach, Southsea Castle (Henry VIII's fort) and Clarence Pier amusements — a long, flat, easy walk with big skies.
- The D-Day Story — The museum of the Normandy landings, with the 83-metre Overlord Embroidery — the fleet sailed from this very shore.
- Charles Dickens' Birthplace Museum — 393 Old Commercial Road — the house where Dickens was born in 1812, kept as it was.
- Hovertravel to the Isle of Wight — The world's only commercial passenger hovercraft — ten minutes, Southsea to Ryde, flying the whole way.
- Gunwharf Quays — Waterfront outlet shopping under the tower — worth it for the harbour views alone.
Good to know: The Historic Dockyard is a half-day on its own — buy the combined ticket if you want Victory, the Mary Rose and HMS Warrior. The Spinnaker Tower's glass Sky Walk is not for the wobbly-kneed. Southsea seafront is a long, flat promenade — easy walking, big skies. Best time: late spring to early autumn; the Dockyard ships are under cover year-round.
Jess's favourite The Hovertravel hovercraft — Southsea to Ryde
the world's only commercial passenger hovercraft: ten minutes across the Solent, flying the whole way, spray and all. Departs from Clarence Esplanade, Southsea — children love it.
Jess plans her trips the week before, but trains have a mind of their own. Routes, times and fares in these guides were checked at the time of writing — engineering works, timetable changes and last-minute alterations can still happen. Please check your journey before you travel (National Rail Enquiries or the Trainline app) — and if a replacement bus sneaks in, we hope the day makes up for it.
Read Jess's diary of the day ↓
Jess's Day Off · Diary No. 25
Portsmouth: sails, ships, and the hovercraft that flies
Portsmouth, Hampshire
One hour and thirty-five minutes. That is all it took, Waterloo to Portsmouth Harbour — time for a flask of tea, half a cheese sandwich, and Barnaby's latest dictation (a hedgehog, a tall ship, and a seagull with strong opinions — I am not allowed to say more). The land flattens into harbours and inlets past Woking, and by Fratton you can smell the sea through the carriage windows. It was not my imagination that I nearly left my notebook on the seat. Again.
The arrival
Portsmouth Harbour station, and the sea is right there — you step off the train and the platform ends at the water. Ferries, hovercraft, warships grey on the horizon. I walked out past Gunwharf Quays with the Spinnaker Tower doing its sail-thing overhead, white against the blue, and thought: this is a city that never stopped looking at the sea.
The walk
First stop: the Historic Dockyard. HMS Victory first — Nelson's flagship, 104 guns, Trafalgar 1805 — and standing on the quarterdeck where he fell, with the great cabin's low beams overhead, I went very quiet. Then the Mary Rose: Henry VIII's warship, on the seabed for 437 years, now standing in her museum like a ghost made of oak. You look through the glass at the sailors' things — a comb, a leather shoe, a backgammon board — and 1545 feels like last Tuesday.
Then my mandatory wrong turn. I meant to find Southsea Castle and instead followed the waterfront the wrong way, past the fishing boats and the hovercraft pad, and ended up at the D-Day Story — which was, of course, exactly right: the wrong turn is usually the right one. The Overlord Embroidery is 83 metres of stitched history, and I stood in front of it for a long time thinking about boats full of very young men.
Animals spotted: herring gulls running the whole harbour like they own it (they do), cormorants drying their wings on the harbour wall like tiny black dragons, and — from the Southsea promenade — a grey seal's head bobbing in the swell off the beach. I waved. It did not wave back. Professional courtesy, probably. And then I saw the sign: Clarence Esplanade. A whole seafront promenade with Clarence's name on it. I stood there grinning until a gull nearly took my sandwich.
The café
On the waterfront at Gunwharf Quays I found a table outside, ordered fish and chips, and ate them watching the ferries come and go. A gull watched me with the focused intensity of a health inspector. I shared one chip. Keeper's tax.
The tower
And then the afternoon's whole reason: the Spinnaker Tower. Up in the glass lift, 170 metres, and the whole harbour spread below — the Dockyard, the warships, the Isle of Wight across the water. The Sky Walk's glass floor is a special kind of brave. I stood on it. Briefly. My zookeeper legs are built for many things, but transparent floors at a hundred metres are not among them.
Home
Back in London by early evening, salt in my hair and harbour-water in my notebook. Tired, sea-happy, notebook full. Happy.
Story seed
The Mary Rose did it. A ship asleep under the sea for 437 years, then raised up whole. I'm writing a scene where Pinafor finds an old boat sunk in the Great Pond and is convinced it is only napping — and organises a full rescue with pulleys, acorns, and Clarence's sceptical snout. Clarence, who knows a wreck when he sniffs one, helps anyway. Some rescues are worth it even if the boat was only sleeping.
Barnaby's text"One hundred and seventy metres of glass floor, and you stood on it — that is your keeper's courage growing every trip, Jess. You walked the decks where Nelson walked, you stood quiet for the Mary Rose's sailors, you got gloriously lost and found the D-Day Story, and you shared a chip with a gull, which is diplomacy of the highest order. The sea rewards keepers who pay attention. Keep going, young zookeeper — there are more harbours to walk and more stories to bring home."
— Jess
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