Portsdown Hill lies to the north of Portsmouth and not only acts as a weather barrier – it could easily snow several feet deep north of the hill yet remain resolutely damp at most to the south – but offers some spectacular views over our home city plus, further afield, Hayling Island, the Isle of Wight, and Gosport. It’s also the location for numerous military establishments built to defend the city or to conduct military research. In January 2011, probably to blow some cobwebs away, my wife and I drove up to the top and decided to head off on a short walk over the back and down a few lanes, and photographs were taken.
Car registration number plate dumping was all the rage in 2011. Everyone was doing it.
The building that looks a little like the upper part of a modern destroyer is part of what’s now known as the Portsdown Technology Park, but for those of us who’ve lived all our lives in Portsmouth it will always be ASWE. That stands for Admiralty Surface Weapons Establishment and we all just assume that horrifying experiments took place there and may still do. That’s what watching too much sci-fi will do to you.
A concluding photograph looking down on the great, historic city of Portsmouth as we arrived back at our car. As is mandatory for anyone at any high point near where they live I must now state that I can see my house from up here.
For more views from near this vantage point there are also some pictures taken from Fort Purbrook.