User:Jaguar/draft/Portsmouth

Portsmouth is the second largest city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire on the south coast of England. Located mainly on Portsea Island, it is the United Kingdom's only island city. Portsmouth is situated 64 mi south west of London and 19 mi south east of Southampton. The city has a population of 205,400 and is the only city in the United Kingdom with a greater population density than London. The City of Portsmouth and Portsmouth Football Club are both nicknamed "Pompey".

As a significant naval port for centuries, Portsmouth has the world's oldest continuously used dry dock and is home to some famous ships, including HMS Warrior, the Tudor carrack Mary Rose and Lord Nelson's flagship, HMS Victory (the world's oldest naval ship still in commission). By the 19th century, Portsmouth was one of the most fortified cities in the world. During the Second World War, the city served as a pivotal embarkation point for the D-Day landings and was also chosen as the headquarters for the Supreme Allied Commander, Dwight D. Eisenhower. The city was bombed extensively during what was known as the Portsmouth Blitz, which resulted in the deaths of 930 people. Although smaller than in its heyday, the naval base at HMNB Portsmouth remains largest dockyard for the Royal Navy and is home to two-thirds of the entire surface fleet.

The waterfront area and Portsmouth Harbour is dominated by the Spinnaker Tower, a 560 feet landmark which stands as the United Kingdom's eleventh tallest structure as well as the tallest outside London. The former HMS Vernon naval shore establishment has since been redeveloped as an area of retail outlets, restaurants, clubs and bars known as Gunwharf Quays. As well as the naval base, Portsmouth International Port is a commercial cruise ship and ferry port which serves international destinations for freight and passenger traffic. Portsmouth forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area which also covers Southampton, Havant, Waterlooville, Eastleigh, Fareham and Gosport. With approximately 860,000 residents, it is the 6th largest urban area in England and the largest in South East England, forming the centre of one of the United Kingdom's most populous metropolitan areas with a population in excess of one million.

Early history
The Roman Saxon fortress of Portus Adurni, about 4 mi northwest of Portsmouth, now Portchester, was originally established in the late 3rd century, probably by Marcus Aurelius Carausius. The earliest records of the city did not survive, though the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, dated to the late 9th century, mentions that a man named Port and his two sons Bieda and Mægla arrived in Britain with two ships to the place which is now Portsmouth and slew a young British noble man in 501. "Portesmuða" is the Old English name for Portsmouth, which means "mouth of the Portus harbour".

During the Norman Conquest of 1066, Portsmouth is believed to have been destroyed by Norman invaders. There was no mention of Portsmouth in the Domesday Survey of 1086. The modern town is traditionally believed to have been founded by Anglo-Norman merchant Jean de Gisors in 1180, when he started a settlement on the island of Portsea to serve as a shelter for ships. The town received a royal charter in 1184, which is documented in the Southwick Cartularies. and a year later, Portsmouth's first Anglican chapel was built, dedicated to Thomas Becket. It was erected and run by Augustinian monks of Southwick Priory.

Medieval
In 1194 King Richard I returned from being held captive in Austria, and embarked at Portsmouth with a fleet of one hundred ships and an army. On 2 May 1194, Richard I gave Portsmouth its first Royal Charter granting permission for the borough to hold a fifteen-day annual "Free Market Fair", weekly markets, and a local court to deal with minor matters. The borough was also exempted from paying the annual tax, with the result that the money could be used for local matters. Richard I later went on to build a number of houses and a hall in Portsmouth. Richard himself granted the town the arms of Isaac Komnenos of Cyprus, whom he had defeated prior to his capture.

The town developed as a port for trading wool and grain in the 13th century.

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In 1200 John I reaffirmed the rights and privileges awarded by Richard II. King John's desire to invade Normandy resulted in the establishment of Portsmouth as a permanent naval base. Shortly afterwards, construction began on the first docks, and the Hospital of St Nicholas, which performed its duties as an almshouse and hospice. During the 13th century Portsmouth was commonly used by Henry III and Edward I as a base for attacks against France. By the 14th century commercial interests had grown considerably. Common imports included wool, grain, wheat, woad, wax and iron, however the port's largest trade was in wine from Bayonne and Bordeaux.

In 1338 a French fleet led by Nicholas Béhuchet raided Portsmouth, destroying much of the town, with only the local church and hospital surviving. Edward III gave the town exemption from national taxes to aid reconstruction. Only ten years later, the town was struck by the Black Death. To prevent the regrowth of Portsmouth as a threat, the French again sacked the town in 1369, 1377 and 1380. Henry V built the first permanent fortifications of Portsmouth. In 1418 he ordered a wooden Round Tower be built at the mouth of the harbour, which was completed in 1426. Henry VII rebuilt the fortifications with stone, raised a square tower, and assisted Robert Brygandine and Sir Reginald Bray in the construction of the world's first dry dock. Although King Alfred may have used Portsmouth to build ships as early as the 9th century, the first warship recorded as constructed in the town was the Sweepstake, built in the dry dock in 1497. In 1544, with money from the Dissolution of the Monasteries and in order to combat the growing expectation of an increased conflict with the French, Henry VIII built Southsea Castle and decreed that Portsmouth should be the home of the Royal Navy he had founded. In 1545, from Southsea castle he saw his vice-flagship Mary Rose sink with a loss of about 500 lives, while going into action against the French fleet. The suburb of Southsea later developed from the castle and naval dockyard. Over the years, Portsmouth's fortifications were rebuilt and improved by successive monarchs.

Stuart to Georgian
In 1628 the unpopular favourite of Charles I, George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, was stabbed to death in an Old Portsmouth pub by a veteran of Villiers' most recent military folly, John Felton. The murder took place in the "Greyhound" pub (popularly known as "The Spotted Dog") on the main High Street. Now a private building called Buckingham House, it bears a commemorative plaque marking the event.

During the English Civil War the arsenal at the Square Tower was surrendered by its royalist commander in return for safe passage out of Portsmouth for himself and the garrison. During the war, the town became a major base for the Parliamentary Navy. Under the Commonwealth, Robert Blake, the father of the Royal Navy, used Portsmouth as his main base, during both the Anglo Dutch War and the Anglo Spanish War. He died within sight of the town after his final cruise off Cádiz.

On 13 May 1787, 11 ships sailed from Portsmouth to establish the first European colony in Australia, marking the beginning of prisoner transports to that continent. It is known today as the First Fleet in Australia.

Victorian
Portsmouth has a long history of supporting the Royal Navy logistically, leading to its importance in the development of the Industrial Revolution. Marc Isambard Brunel, the father of famed Portsmouth engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, established in 1802 the world's first mass production line at the Portsmouth Block Mills, producing pulley blocks for rigging on the Royal Navy's ships. At its height the dockyard was the largest industrial site in the world.

The city's nickname Pompey is thought to have derived from the log entry "Pom. P." (meaning Portsmouth Point) made as ships entered Portsmouth Harbour. Navigational charts use this abbreviation. Another theory is that it is named after the harbour's guardship, Le Pompee, a 74-gun French battleship captured in 1793.

Admiral Nelson left Portsmouth for the last time in 1805 to command the fleet that defeated the larger Franco-Spanish fleet at Trafalgar. The Royal Navy's reliance on Portsmouth led to the town becoming the most fortified in Europe, with a network of forts (a subset of "Palmerston's Follies") encircling the town. From 1808 the Royal Navy's West Africa Squadron, who were tasked to stop the slave trade, operated out of Portsmouth. On 21 December 1872 a major scientific expedition, the Challenger Expedition, was launched from Portsmouth.

In 1818 John Pounds began teaching the working class children of Portsmouth in what became the country's first ragged school. The schools and the resulting movement aimed to provide education to all children regardless of their ability to pay. They were keenly supported by Charles Dickens who was born in Portsmouth in 1812.

First World War to Second World War
In 1916, the town experienced its first aerial bombardment when a Zeppelin airship bombed it during the First World War. Portsmouth was granted city status in 1926, following a long campaign by the borough council. The application was made on the grounds that Portsmouth was the "first naval port of the kingdom". Two years later the city received the further honour of a lord mayoralty. In 1929 the city council added the motto "Heaven's Light Our Guide" to the medieval coat of arms. Apart from referring to the celestial objects in the arms, the motto was that of the Star of India. This recalled that troopships bound for the colony left from the port. Further changes were made to the arms in 1970, when the Portsmouth Museums Trust sponsored the grant of crest, supporters and heraldic badge. The crest and supporters are based on those of the royal arms, but altered to show the city's maritime connections: the lions and unicorn have been given fish tails, and a naval crown placed around the latter animal. Around the unicorn is wrapped a representation of "The Mighty Chain of Iron", a Tudor defensive boom across Portsmouth Harbour.

During the Second World War, the city was bombed extensively destroying many houses and the Guildhall. The air raids caused the death of 930 people and injured nearly 3,000 more, many in the dockyard and the naval and military establishments. Portsmouth's status as a major port was the key factor in the Luftwaffe's decision to bomb it so heavily. While most of the city has since been rebuilt, developers still occasionally find unexploded bombs in the area. Southsea Beach and Portsmouth Harbour were vital military embarkation points for the D-Day landings on 6 June 1944. Southwick House, just to the north of Portsmouth, had been chosen as the headquarters for the Supreme Allied Commander, US General Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Post-war
After the war, much of the city's housing stock was damaged and more was cleared in an attempt to improve the quality of housing. Those affected were moved out from the centre of the city to new developments such as Paulsgrove and Leigh Park. Post-war redevelopment throughout the country was characterised by utilitarian and brutalist architecture, with Portsmouth's Tricorn Centre one of the most famous examples.

In 2001, redevelopment of the HMS Vernon naval shore establishment began as a complex of retail outlets, clubs, bars and a large shopping centre known as Gunwharf Quays. In 2003, construction of the 552 feet tall Spinnaker Tower began at Gunwharf Quays with sponsorship from the National Lottery. In late 2004, the Tricorn Centre, dubbed "The ugliest building in the UK" was demolished after years of debate over the expenses of demolition, and controversy as to whether it was worth preserving as an example of 1960s Brutalist architecture. The city celebrated the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar in 2005, with Queen Elizabeth II being present at a formal Fleet review and a staged mock battle. -->