The Portsmouth Society - Earlier News

Earlier News Stories

Friends of the Pyramids

Through lobbying and campaigning, The Friends Of The Pyramids have persuaded the City Council to grant the leisure complex on Southsea seafront a stay of execution.

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Winter 2008 Newsletter

Top stories include :

  • The past is a present to the future
  • Northern Quarter Plans Now Available
  • Farewell Pitt Street Baths
  • Tipner Regeneration Masterplan
  • Hilsea Lido Pool for the People
  • Boundary walls and Conservation Areas
  • What's Past is Passed? - Creative Thinking Exercise
  • Your City, Your Future - Core Strategy Submission
  • The Guardsman, Fratton Road
  • Cut the VAT Coalition
  • Odeon Cinema North End
View the Newsletter.

Northern Quarter Planning Applications

Detail plans for the Northern Quarter shopping and leisure complex for Portsmouth city centre were submitted in February to the City Council and more recently, Centros Miller have submitted revised plans for the proposed John Lewis store.
Northern Quarter (reserved matters) Planning Application
Northern Quarter (reserved matters) - Portsmouth Society's comments
John Lewis store - details of the revised planning application

Demolition of Pitt Street Baths

A useful and decorative piece of Portsmouth's heritage has been destroyed with the demolition of Pitt Street Baths to make way for the Northern Quarter road scheme.

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Click here to read about the demolition of Pitt Street Baths.

The world’s first Cultural Seascape to be inscribed on the World Heritage list

A new proposal – to work towards inscription of Portsmouth Harbour and Spithead as a World Heritage site – promises to provide continuity from the physical and social legacy of the area's past towards a well designed, creative future, where new developments and enterprises are of the highest quality and distinctive aspects of the area's economy are enhanced, stimulated by what makes it worthy of world-wide recognition.

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Portsmouth Harbour from Portsdown Hill. Click for full article on the World Heritage listing.

Introducing HILSEA LIDO POOL FOR THE PEOPLE

Two recent public meetings at the Lido's Blue Lagoon have seen the numbers of supporters now working to save this much-loved swimming pool quickly grow. A third meeting is planned for 7pm on Tuesday 13th November at The Avenue Hotel. Click here for more details.

See also The Lido's 'pool' of life-savers begins to fill!.
Introducing Hilsea Lido Pool for the People - click for more details.

New plans for Portsmouth Football Club Stadium

Portsmouth Football Club announced on 26 October that they have revised their plans and are now looking to locate the new stadium at Horsea Island next to the M275 motorway near the Sails of the South sculpture. We look forward to seeing the detail plans but in the meantime you can see the proposals at the PFC Web site at www.portsmouthfc.co.uk .
Aerial view of the site for the proposed new stadium and housing at Horsea Island.

Special Report - South West Trains

The campaign continues - to restore a respectable standard of accommodation on Main Line services operated by South West Trains (SWT) between London (Waterloo) and Portsmouth Harbour. In this special report, we summarise the situation and describe the actions we and others are taking to persuade SWT to listen to their customers.

View the Special Report.
Click here to read the special report on South West Trains.

Autumn 2007 Newsletter

Top stories include :

  • Design Awards 2007
  • Harbour cruise report
  • Hilsea Lido
  • Wymering Manor
  • World Heritage Site update
  • T.E.Owen sculpture
  • Commercial Rd/Edinburgh Rd public inquiry
  • PFC Stadium
  • Core Strategy - what's on the horizon for Portsmouth?
View the Newsletter.
Click here to read the Portsmouth Society's Autumn 2007 newsletter.

Design Awards 2007 - The results

The new University Library extension is Portsmouth's Best New Building 2007.

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University Library entrance by night.  Click for more details on the 2000 Design Awards.

Portsmouth Cycle Forum

The Portsmouth Cycle Forum has a new web site called PompeyBUG where you can find details of meetings and current activities. Membership of the Forum is open to individuals and organisation with an interest in cycling in the City of Portsmouth. Their next public meeting is on Thursday 27th September at 7pm in Portsmouth Guildhall.

PompeyBUG Web site.

Hilsea Lido Questionnaire

In July of this year, the Hilsea Lido Working Group created a questionnaire to canvas the opinions of users of the Hilsea Lido. When the new swimming pool at the Mountbatten Centre opens in a few years time, the Art Deco main swimming pool at the Lido at Hilsea will no longer be maintained by Portsmouth City Council. Grateful thanks go to all who have helped in this important survey, the results of which are currently being analyzed and which has led to the organising of an important public meeting there in October.

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Summer 2007 Newsletter

Top stories include :
  • Portsmouth FC Stadium for The Hard?,
  • Core Strategy for Portsmouth
  • Proposals for Northern Quarter,
  • Planning Matters
  • Buildings in their original condition
  • Membership update
  • South West Trains
  • Planning white paper
  • Meeting with PCC Chief Exec. David Williams
  • World Heritage proposals
  • Edinburgh Rd / Commercial Rd closure
  • Portsmouth Society wins Civic Award
  • Commemorations
View the Newsletter.

Architecture Week Boat Trip 21st June

The Architecture Week Boat Trip was attended by more than 150 members and guests. The weather was favourable and we were able to travel towards Portchester Castle and Fareham Creek before heading south out of the harbour as far as Clarence Pier. Thanks to all who helped organise such a successful event. Any ideas for Architecture Week 2008?

Annual Report 2007

The annual report of the Society was presented at the AGM in April. Portsmouth's mini-building boom continues but we are still concerned at the poor quality of some of the designs. Archeology, Hilsea Lido and the new Northern Quarter development are just three of the other many issues we have been involved with in the past year.

Read the report
Click here to read the Annual Report 2007

Winter 2007 Newsletter

In this edition ...
  • Design Awards 2006
  • Savoy Buildings
  • New John Lewis store for Northern Quarter
  • Portsmouth Harbour as a World Heritage Site
  • Report from Southern Comfort 2006
  • The New Planning System
  • Core Strategy Questionnaire
  • Architecture Week 2007
  • Portsmouth Archaeology
  • Reviving Hilsea Lido
  • The City Council's Trees
  • South West Trains (SWT) downgrades Portsmouth - Waterloo line
View the Newsletter.
Click here to view theWinter 2007 newsletter.

Reports from Southern Comfort 2006

The reports from the Southern Comfort 2006 meeting held in Portsmouth on 16 October are now available for downloading.

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Southern Comfort 2006 logo

Portsmouth Society Design Awards 2006

The Spinnaker Tower, the setting of Nelson's Statue and the Angel Drinking Fountain were the winners in this year's Design Competition.

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South West Trains downgrades Portsmouth-Waterloo services

Since winning the 10-year South Western rail franchise, Stagecoach owned South West Trains has decided to downgrade Portsmouth-Waterloo line services.

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High density suburban class 450 trains are now running on most Portsmouth-Waterloo services, replacing 2 year-old long-distance class 444 units.

The future of Portsmouth Naval Base

As a result of a Government review, Portsmouth Naval Base is under threat of closure. The News has an on-line petition which you can sign.

More...
Picture of aircraft carrier

Summer 2006 Newsletter

Articles include :
  • Wymering Manor Success
  • Southern Comfort 2006
  • Buckingham House, Old Portsmouth
  • Archaeology – missing in Portsmouth
  • New Publications
  • Knight & Lee - Proposal for listed status
  • Portsmouth Festivities
  • South East Plan
  • Proposed Regeneration of Tipner
  • Abolition of Crown exemption
  • New Think Tank
  • Volunteer Day 17 June 2006
View the Newsletter.

View the Newsletter.

Winter Newsletter

Top stories from in the February 2006 newsletter :
  • Maritime City - Portsmouth 1945 - 2005'
  • Northern Quarter - Outline Permission Granted
  • Brunel Bicentennial Celebrations
  • Wymering Manor - the oldest house in Portsmouth
  • Decaying Public Heritage
  • Craftspeople in short supply - yet popular university course to close?
  • Southern Comfort 2005, Farnham
  • Nuclear or not?
  • Peter Cobb - Fortifications buff, enthusiast and colleague
  • Nothing to Report - more signs in Old Portsmouth
  • St George's Road Pelican crossing - a small victory for the Society
Portsmouth Society Winter 2006 Newsletter
View the Newsletter.

Portsmouth Society Newsletter - Autumn 2005

In this edition ...

Portsmouth Society Autumn 2005 Newsletter View the complete Newsletter

Portsmouth Society Newsletter - Summer 2005

In this edition ...

  • How do you recognise a good building?
  • Design Awards 2005 - Nominations Invited
  • "Inside Out" Home for Mary Rose
  • Beneficial School, Kent Street, Portsea
  • A sustainable future for Fraser Battery, Eastney?
  • Concrete Threat to Front Gardens
  • Block Mills - top historic site and Building at Risk
  • Mudlarks
  • More Pompeyspeak
  • Travel costs since 1997
  • Traffic gridlocks in Portsmouth
  • The South East Plan
  • The Point and Broad Street – Appeal rejected
  • Nelson's statue and the Victory anchor
  • Moving around Portsmouth
Click here to read the newsletter
View the Newsletter

Portsmouth Society Newsletter - Spring 2005

In this edition ...

  • What Future for Southsea Shopping Precinct?
  • How to declutter your streets
  • Trafalgar 200
  • Lionel Brett (Viscount Esher) 1913-2004
  • Replanning the Tricorn site
  • Tricorn News & Gossip
  • The Great Portsmouth Gridlock
  • The Rimmington mural
  • Traffic Signs in Conservation Areas
  • Milan Mandaric statue appeal
  • Defects of the traffic system
  • Postcards from Portsmouth
  • Forgotten Ports of England
  • TETRA - Transmitting from Fratton Park
  • Conservation News
  • Guide to Planning
Click here to read the newsletter
View the Newsletter

Portsmouth Society Newsletter - Summer 2004

In this edition ...

View the complete Newsletter

Portsmouth Society Newsletter - Winter 2004

In this edition ...
View the complete newsletter

Portsmouth Society Newsletter - Autumn 2003

Here are the main stories from the Autumn edition of the Portsmouth Society Newsletter.

View the newsletter

Portsmouth Society Newsletter - May 2003

Here are the main stories from the Spring edition of the Portsmouth Society Newsletter.
Click here to view the newsletter
View the newsletter

Portsmouth Society Newsletter - January 2003

Here are the main stories from the Winter edition of the Portsmouth Society Newsletter.

View the newsletter

  The Archive

The Portsmouth Society's records go back many years. In the Archive you will find back issues of our newsletters and annual reports.

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