SouthseaScene

This October the University of Portsmouth celebrates Black History Month (BHM) with a programme of cultural festivals, film, talks and a call to add to the University’s archives and collections in the Library. Black History Month promotes knowledge of black history, culture and heritage, and positive black contributions to British society. In support of BHM the University is supporting various activities throughout the Month, in conjunction with the Multicultural Staff Network and Student Union and Portsmouth Film Society. The University is also signing up to the Race Equality Charter , which aims to improve the representation, progression and success of minority ethnic staff and students within higher education. Some of the events currently planned throughout the month include: Throughout October, University Library Our Global History archive project The University is proud of its global heritage - but as with so many institutions, it sadly has little recorded black history to date...

Just £25,000 is needed for the final push to get funds for the full restoration and final display of D-Day sole survivor, landing craft (tank) LCT 7074. The National Museum of the Royal Navy has launched the campaign to raise funds to help complete the restoration of the last surviving Second World War, D-Day LCT 7074. She will be displayed alongside the museum’s affiliate, the D-Day Story, Southsea, to mark the 75th anniversary of D-Day in 2019. The scheme has received a generous first round grant of £4.7million from the National Lottery however match funding is now required to unlock the funds and secure enough money to carry out the full restoration of the 200-foot craft. Head of Exhibitions and Collections at The National Museum of the Royal Navy, Nick Hewitt said: “At dawn, on the morning of D-Day, 6 June 1944, 800 landing craft approached the Normandy landing beaches. What ensued was the largest seaborne invasion in history and it was landing craft, including LCT 7074, that deli...

LCT 7074 to be focal point of The National Museum of the Royal Navy’s affiliate Portsmouth’s D-Day Museum thanks to £4.7m from The National Lottery For the first time ever an original Landing Craft Tank (LCT) will be on display at the D-Day Museum in Portsmouth. This has been made possible thanks to an investment of nearly £5m from The National Lottery and has been planned to coincide with the 75th anniversary of the landings in two years’ time. The D-Day Museum is an affiliate of The National Museum of the Royal Navy which is managing the project. Due to reopen in 2018 following a complete refurbishment, the D-Day Museum offers a much more in-depth narrative on the events that took place in ‘Operation Overlord’ on 6 June 1944 and looks specifically at the Royal Navy and how its crews coped on that day. Over 800 LCTs with the capacity to carry 10 tanks or equivalent armoured vehicles were involved in ‘Operation Neptune’, the naval element of ‘Overlord’. The largest amphi...

Students from the Faculty of Creative and Cultural Industries produced an innovative 360 degree video to promote Portsmouth’s world-class tourist attractions to some of the most important decision makers in the cruise ship industry at Europe’s premier cruise expo, Seatrade Europe . The video gives viewers the chance to get an all-round impression of some of Portsmouth’s most famous attractions. Portsmouth International Port is pushing for more cruise ship visits in the coming years and the video was part of a new #portsmouthtakesyouthere marketing campaign, highlighting a range of exceptional experiences offered in the City and on holidays from the port. The new immersive 360 degree video has been produced with the University’s Faculty of Creative and Cultural Industries, giving students the chance to promote key sights and landmarks in the City. The interactive marketing material gives viewers the chance to get an all-round impression of some of Portsmouth’s most famous at...

The historic city of Portsmouth has plenty to offer visitors for a special winter short break. Stroll the Historic Dockyards which will be transformed into a snowy Victorian street market for the annual festive event. Soak up the city’s cultural atmosphere beginning with a visit to the birthplace of Charles Dickens, the great 19th century writer and the city’s most famous son. The City Museum is home to the largest collection of items in the world relating to Conan Doyle and his famous detective. Stay in one of the city’s many boutique hotels such as the Mercer Collection of seven unique properties in Southsea - relax with a cosy spa treatment, and indulge in delicious food and wine from all regions in the many varied pubs offering local ales and top class restaurants such as No27 and Montparnasse, or the quirkier Pie & Vinyl. No Man’s Fort in the Solent offers a completely different experience in one of three fortifications built during the Napoleonic Wars and now offering luxur...

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 C...

The Portsea Lost Heritage Walk will be held on Saturday 23 September 2017, 10.00 from Portsmouth Historic Dockyard Gate on The Hard, to St John the Evangelist RC Cathedral, led by Dr Ann Coats, University of Portsmouth. The walk will last 2-2½ hrs with a break halfway The distance is approximately 0.8miles/1.3 km. If the weather is too bad on the day the walk will be cancelled and rescheduled. Aim of the Walk: to gather ideas and opinions from the public via a short Questionnaire about what heritage places should be included in a Heritage Trail, what might improve green spaces and how to link these places by walking. Following the Dockyard Wall, we shall locate the vanished sites of the Brewery, the Daniel Street Chapel, St John’s Church and St John’s RC chapel. Three streets: Marlborough Row, Gloucester Street and Frederick Street were taken into the Dockyard in 1944. What do street names tell us about Portsea’s history? It will connect heritage and green places and ex...

The board of The National Museum of the Royal Navy has agreed unanimously to keep the Yomper statue where it is on Eastney seafront. The resounding “yes” followed a year-long public consultation which gathered over 3000 responses from across the country. The Yomper, sculpted by Philip Jackson, has become a very popular feature of the Eastney seafront. It dominates the entrance to the Royal Marines Museum and was originally commissioned as a marker for the museum, the galleries of which are now closed to visitors. It was unveiled by Lady Margaret Thatcher on 8 July 1992 on the 10th anniversary of the Falklands conflict.  Following the award of a £13.85 million grant in May 2016 from the Heritage Lottery Fund to create the country’s newest national collection at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, it was announced that a new Royal Marines Museum would open in the historic dockyard. It was feared this would prompt the removal of the statue from its current location to the...

The silhouette of Sherlock Holmes, with his deerstalker hat, pipe and magnifying glass, is instantly recognisable. The stories have been translated into many languages, and new stories are always being written. All over the world actors have made their name by playing the famous – and infinitely malleable – detective, and groups meet to discuss and dress as characters from the stories. But what is behind this extraordinary attraction to the character of Holmes?  Go along to the Spring Arts and Heritage Centre, to listen to Michael Gunton, Senior Archivist at Portsmouth City Library,  who will explore some of the reasons for our enduring fascination with Sherlock Holmes. Perhaps due to the hugely popular television series starting Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman, Holmes is often mistaken for a historical figure, rather than a fictional creation. An extensive collection of items relating to Conan Doyle is housed in the Library’s second floor history suite, and M...