Skip to main content

The Spirit of ’67: Portsmouth’s Summer of Love and its Legacy



We welcome a new, temporary exhibition which opens today at Portsmouth Guildhall and is available until 8th January 2018.

The exhibition, created by Dave Allen and hosted by the Faculty of Creative and Cultural Industries, marks the 50th anniversary of the so-called ‘Summer of Love’ with a focus on Portsmouth in the late 1960s and the legacy of those interesting times.

The familiar histories tell tales of Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, swinging London and young people with flowers in their hair and bells round their necks, traveling in their thousands to San Francisco’s Haight Ashbury district to join the hippies there. The histories of those times also tell us that after the explosion of colour and new sounds of 1967, the following year’s revolutionary spirit became more political and less peaceful, leading to some terrible events in the immediate aftermath such as Altamont, Manson and Kent State.

Dave Allen’s book, Autumn of Love: How the Swinging Sixties & the Counterculture came to Portsmouth is available from Portsmouth Guildhall and Waterstones.

The Spirit of ’67: Portsmouth’s Summer of Love and its Legacy temporary exhibition is part of an ongoing programme hosted by the Faculty of Creative and Cultural Industries (CCI) at the University of Portsmouth in partnership with Portsmouth Cultural Trust, the operators of the Guildhall.

It is FREE to view the exhibition, 10am – 4pm weekdays. Please check weekend opening times with Portsmouth Guildhall Box Office on 023 9387 0200.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Indonesian fried spring rolls (Lumpia Goreng)

I don't often make Indonesian food because the ingredients are hard to find, but our local supermarkets are getting better at stocking ethnic ingredients. In the frozen section of Tesco, near the samosas, you can find the spring roll pastry.  Don't bother asking the branch in Chester. I was laughed at by the cashier when I asked for spring roll skin, because 'skin' is what we call the wrapper in Indonesian. Her more helpful colleague offered me filo pastry instead, which can be a good substitute. I'm afraid no one in Chester has yet to taste my amazing spring rolls as a result. Friends in Southsea are luckier!  Here are the ingredients to make 30 spring rolls (the packs come in 30 or 40 pieces) 1 medium head of cabbage, thinly sliced 2 carrots, julienned 1 red or yellow pepper, julienned 1 medium onion, thinly sliced 1 medium courgette, julienned 1 tablespoon of Oyster sauce (omit if cooking for vegan) 2 tbsp soy sauce salt and pepper to taste 1 tbsp vegetable oil f...

‘Southsea dinosaur’ returns

Luna Park 2021, an eagerly anticipated new public artwork for Portsmouth designed by internationally renowned artists Ivan Morison and Heather Peak of Studio Morison will be launched on 2 October 2021 on a celebratory day in Southsea Common.  The 1.4 metres bronze sculpture is a tribute to the original 53-foot high 2010 artwork Luna Park, which tragically burned down on Southsea Common. The artists will unveil a new sculpture that responds to ten years of public demand to ‘bring back the Southsea Dinosaur’.  The new public artwork will be located within a direct sightline to the position of the original Luna Park sculpture. It will sit on top of a fossil Portland stone plinth with a QR code which when scanned with a smartphone will connect to an Augmented Reality experience. People will be transported to a digital rendering of the original artwork, seemingly standing life-size in front of them on Southsea Common. Viewers will also be able to use their mobile devices to visit a...

Feature on Bubble&

Southsea has a monthly farmers market which I really love because Palmerston precinct where it's held becomes even more alive and buzzing. It is also a perfect opportunity to find some fresh or unusual local produce, that's not available in the local supermarkets. I also love meeting the vendors and chatting with them online, anticipating the next market. So I decided that I should really feature some of them on this page. Before the last market, I received a sweet tweet from @BubbleandMarita which prompted a conversation about bubble and squeaks, suitable toppings and the idea of this posting. So let me introduce you... Bubble& is a local street food phenomenon that has redefined bubble and squeak as we know it. They have created gourmet, gluten-free bubble and squeak cakes in a range of flavours that you can eat hot on their market stall with a soft poached egg, bacon and hollandaise sauce. They are so good, you may also want to take them home. So they have designe...