If you were visiting Gosport how would you arrive? Even if you were to fly in to Daedalus at Lee-on-the-Solent, you would still have to come to the Gosport town centre either on foot, or along the road. But you could also arrive by ferry from Portsmouth. So, once here what should you visit?
Well, we have the obvious and very good sites;
- The Esplanade
- The Submarine Museum
- The Explosion Museum (It’s worth walking here from the town centre)
- The Diving Museum
- Stokes Bay, see where Mulberry Harbour was built, and where the D-Day embarkation was managed (the sailing club)
- Take tea in the Alver Bank Hotel, one of the first homes of the Royal Air Force
- Visit the Palmerston Forts (OK, entrance is a bit restricted, so check first!)
- Clarence Yard, take in some excellent food on the site of one of the Royal Navy’s biggest victualling yards (from 1828 to around 1995)
The list above is not definitive.
Like many high streets, if you visit on a Tuesday or a Saturday, you will find a small but bustling market, and there are several cafes that offer street seating, to just sit and have a snack and a drink, watching life go by.
Take a walk up to the Victorian railway station at the end of Spring Garden Lane, and see the track along which Queen Victoria’s body was carried in 1901 after she died in Osborne House on the Isle of Wight.
Whilst the Falkland Gardens commemorate a recent war, the site was also a key location in the English civil war of 1642. From here the Roundheads (Parliamentarians) used cannons to bombard the Cavaliers of Portsmouth.
It is well worth just sitting on the Esplanade, preferably with a bag of chips from the excellent Frydays chippy and watch the small boats come and go, along with the occasional channel ferry, perhaps even a tall ship or modern military vessel.
Is it any surprise that I really enjoy this place?
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