Tag Archives: Southsea

Southsea- Ins and Outs

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For our second day at Southsea we’ve decided to walk the prom/seafront and its environs, taking in a few places we know of and some we don’t.

From our hotel, we need to cross the common and turn left on to the promenade, which becomes smarter and free of the heavy machinery that’s employed in strengthening the flood defences.

I love the architecture here- tall, grand terraces, some of them five floors high, lining the streets leading to the sea or facing the sea itself, although on this January day the sea is iron-grey and visibility poor.

We come to a ‘tropical’ garden, with a faux mini-waterfall, pathways snaking around the palms. Even now, in the depths of a UK winter it’s attractive, with an assortment of green plants and trees providing a variety of textured leaves. Further along there’s [yet another!] pier, then on our left, across the road there is a park with a large boating lake, where swans and ducks have taken residence, coating the surrounding footpath in large dollops of excrement. These have to be negotiated in order to circumnavigate! At one end of the lake there’s a cafe, but we’re heading for the tiny museum, housed in an old house just outside the park.

We know that there’s a butterfly house inside the museum, although when we enter the warm enclosure it soon becomes clear that only one species is visible. They are interesting and spectacular but once we’ve seen them…

The museum is clearly aimed at visiting school parties, with its accent on environmental issues, the ‘only man is vile’ take. Amongst stuffed versions of our own wild birds and mammals there are, bizarrely, models of exotic creatures such as alligators. The lobby is dominated by a large, ambitious model of a dinosaur, looking a little battered and worse for wear. Presumably someone had harboured dreams of echoing the London Natural History Museum’s diplodocus…

It doesn’t take long to complete a tour of the museum, which, to be fair, is free to view. We exit and loop back away from the seafront towards the shopping centre, for tea.

For our last evening we choose to visit an Italian restaurant, Giuseppe’s, which is a stone’s throw from our hotel. On this Saturday evening the small place is packed out with diners, which bodes well, but we’re glad we’ve booked a table. It appears to be run by two brothers who are both gregarious and pleasingly Italian, greeting people in dramatic fashion and creating a fun atmosphere. It’s typically cosy in the restaurant and the decor is characterful and quirky.

The meals are delicious and filling- I’m unable to finish mine. We’re pleased to have chosen this place. We move on to the pub for a last drink before returning to the hotel.

During this short break, the sore throat I’d been harbouring for two days has morphed into a heavy, streaming cold. By the time we get home it has moved on into full-throttle flu, the worst bout of which that I can ever remember. So much for holidays!

Ticket to Ryde

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Day two of our local jaunt to Southsea dawns gloomy and overcast, but we decide to press ahead with a hovercraft trip to the Isle of Wight anyway. At this time of year we can’t expect tropical temperatures or baking sun and it’s a bonus if there’s no rain.

We’ve had a good breakfast at the hotel. It’s just a couple of minutes walk across the common to the hovercraft ticket office and once we’re there there’s a short wait but even so a perusal of the key rings/pens/fridge magnets on offer does nothing to fill the time. Ferries continue to criss-cross on the water outside, beautifully coordinated so as not to collide.

We can see the hovercraft approaching long before it arrives, then it swoops up on to the beach, lifting its skirts and then dropping them in a wheezy curtsey as the air is expelled. The doors lift open at the end and the steps descend, followed swiftly by the passengers, before we’re ushered up and in. This is no sluggish turnaround! Once we’re seated, the vessel rises up and is soon up to speed, whisking across the waves for a ten minute trip to the island. Of course there are no vehicles on this crossing- they must go by ferry. This is an expensive stretch of water; the price of a car or van is quite outrageous, given the short distance; even these passenger tickets are not a bargain.

We’re soon at Ryde, swooping and curtseying then exiting- all over in a flash. Ryde seafront is undergoing a transformation, with new paving, signs and so on. The hovercraft terminal sits next to both the train and bus station- very fancy, although we fail to locate any public lavatories in spite of searching all over the place. Then it becomes clear that the workmen-type portaloos in front of the station are, in fact, the temporary public loos. Later I notice a tiny sign to the effect in the information office window- hmmm.

We catch a bus to Sandown, which has a decadent, neglected air, its once grand hotels and apartments tumbling down, windows boarded, ivy taking hold and mould blackening; and even on the seafront, where rooms and homes face the water providing a wonderful view. Further along, beyond the pier there is an unlovely block of flats and I wonder why anyone would prefer one of these to the grand old Victorian buildings that are becoming ruins.

The pier is dedicated almost entirely to slot machines and on this overcast Saturday, this is where people have come- to play ‘Penny Falls’ and virtual golf. Seaside resorts in winter can often feel melancholy but Sandown feels positively dismal.

We drift back to find a bus stop- there being little else to see.

Back at Ryde we have a look at the pier, which is spectacular, before calling it a day and going for the hovercraft. The later it’s fish and chips in the cosy pub and a nightcap before bed…

Jane Deans has published two novels: The Conways at Earthsend and The Year of Familiar Strangers. Visit my writer page on Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/people/Jane-Deans-Novellist-Short-Fiction-and-Blog/100063988575981/

An Hour Away

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After having spent most of last autumn engaged in various hospital matters, we feel it’s time to make an amoebic foray into the world of excursion- but not too far and not too long!

Husband has reserved us a few nights in Southsea, a satellite of Portsmouth, only about an hour from us here on the UK’s south coast. Two months of only packing hospital necessities has not prepared me for any kind of hotel stay, so I have to think carefully about what I need- but the weather is cold, [as it should be in January here].

Portsmouth is a major south coast port and houses the Royal Navy Dockyard, as well as catering for ferries, across the English Channel and more. Southsea is the seaside part of the city, with [stoney] beaches, piers, street art, a castle and all the usual attractions and some hilarious signage. Besides all of this, it boasts a range of beautiful, historic architecture and some interesting sights as well as a vast, green swathe of common between the sea and the residential area.

The short drive and arrival are bathed in sunshine and clear blue skies so having checked in we wander out around the area and it’s a great location, just behind the stretch of common that borders the beach. The council are clearly using low season to reinforce the seafront, beefing up flood defences- cranes, diggers and piles of aggregate dominating the front. Ferries pass offshore, heading to harbour, also the Channel Islands’ hydrofoil as well as the hyperactive hovercraft to Ryde, Isle of Wight, which is what we’ll be doing tomorrow.

Portsmouth’s ancient dockyard, which houses Lord Nelson’s ship, HMS Victory, HMS Warrior [the first iron battleship] and The Mary Rose, Henry VIII’s flagship. In a previous life I’ve made regular trips to the dockyard with groups of children and know it very well. HMS Warrior is, to my mind, by far the most thrilling to visit with children as they can clamber over canons, handle objects and have a thoroughly good time. Still…

We don’t need to walk far to find a wide selection of places to eat, opting this first night for Chinese, although the meal is mediocre and the restaurant very brightly lit and not quite warm enough. There is just one other couple eating there and the experience is a little dispiriting. We decamp to the pub next door, which is cosy and welcoming and where we’ll eat tomorrow.

If I have one complaint about hotel rooms, it’s that they are too often too hot and dry, the duvets too thick. We do manage to turn off the radiator but I can only adjust the air-con down to 16, which has to do. I prefer a cool room for sleeping, even though the outside temperature is cold.

Breakfast next morning, however is very good and sets us up for some Isle of Wight exploration. Unlike yesterday though, it’s cloudy. We wrap up and head off to the hovercraft ticket office…

Jane Deans two novels: The Conways at Earsthend and The Year of Familiar Strangers are widely available