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🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Portsea is an area of the city of Portsmouth, occupying much of the south-west area around the naval base. It was originally known as The Common, but had its name changed in 1792, taking its present name from Portsea Island on which it stands. In its past, Portsea was a separate settlement to the north of the town of Portsmouth (now Old Portsmouth) before being integrated into the Borough of Portsmouth in 1904, and City of Portsmouth in 1926.

Engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel was born in Britain Street in 1806; and the professor William Garnett was born in Portsea on 30 December 1850.

The Portsea area was formerly an expanse of common land located between the original walled town of Portsmouth and the nearby dockyard. The Common, as it was named, began developing as a new settlement at the end of the 17th century as a response to overcrowding within the walls of the old town of Portsmouth. This development worried the governor of the dockyard, as he feared that the new buildings would provide cover for any forces attempting to attack. In 1703, he threatened to demolish any buildings within range of the cannons mounted on the dockyard walls. However, after a petition to Queen Anne, royal consent for the development was granted in 1704. Part of The Common's shoreline in Portsmouth Harbour became known as The Common Hard, so-named as its sloped hard clay shoreline was convenient for hauling boats into and from Portsmouth Harbour. In 1792 the name of the area was changed from The Common to Portsea (after Portsea Island), and by then it had a mixed dockside population.

William Tucker, baptised there in 1784, was convicted of shoplifting from a Portsea tailor, William Wilday, in 1798 and transported to New South Wales on the "death ship" Hillsborough which took convicts and typhus with it from Portsmouth to the colony. Tucker escaped and made it all the way back to Britain in 1803, only to be taken to Portsmouth for re-embarkation to Australia. He was later a sealer, established the retail trade in preserved Maori heads and settled in Otago, New Zealand where he became that country's first art dealer before falling victim to his hosts in 1817 and being eaten. The novelist Sarah Doudney was born in Portsea on 15 January 1841.

Hertha Ayrton, British engineer, mathematician, physicist and inventor, was born there in 1854.

By the start of the 20th century, Portsmouth council had started to clear much of the slum housing in Portsea. The city's first council houses were built in the district in 1911. The 1920s and 1930s saw extensive redevelopment of the area, with many of the older slums being replaced by new council houses.

The area's proximity to the dockyard resulted in its taking massive bomb damage during World War II. After the war the area was redeveloped as all council housing, in a mixture of houses, maisonettes and tower blocks.

Portsea is also the name of a religious parish of Portsea Island and the city of Portsmouth,

Portsea's shoreline today still remains known as The Hard and is home to The Hard Interchange, a bus and coach terminus and Portsmouth Harbour railway station, which is built on a pier to the south of The Hard.
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Europe/London/Portsmouth

Image: Adobe Stock mrallen #159303029

Portsea has a population of over 147,088 people. Portsea also forms one of the centres of the wider Portsmouth City which has a population of over 205,100 people. It is also a part of the larger Portsmouth-Southampton area.

To set up a UBI Lab for Portsea see: https://www.ubilabnetwork.org Twitter: https://twitter.com/UBILabNetwork

Text Atribution: Wikipedia Text under CC-BY-SA license

Reginald Theodore Blomfield |
🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Architect/Garden Designer Reginald Theodore Blomfield is associated with Portsea. He was a founder member of the Art Workers’ Guild in 1884 and subsequently was made its honorary secretary.