Reminiscences Of Portsmouth In The Late 1930s

A Memory of Portsmouth.

I was born in Portsmouth in 1933. My family and I lived first in Lyndhurst Road - about which I don't recall too much - then later in Merrivale Road. I remember very clearly where Merrivale joined Copnor Road. When you turned left, there was a military barracks on the left and, opposite it, a sports ground. At age 4, I was enrolled in a little privately-run pre-school not far away, I believe, in Gatcombe Avenue just off Copnor Road, where I recall there was a very imposing pub, called, I think,'The Golden Hind', on the corner with low, chain-linked pillars surrounding the forecourt. There was a small confectioner's in the shopping parade opposite in Copnor Road where you could buy toffee 'Golli-Bars' for a farthing (!) each. The school was run by a very strict lady. We sat in long desks arranged in tiers and she had a long cane that she would flick our legs with if we were inattentive. But, looking back, she really knew her stuff and I learned at great deal! The 'classroom' led into a small conservatory where we had our breaks and where she kept plants and a parrot. There were only about ten of us kids at the school and I learned to read quite fluently by age 5. This was, strangely, not an advantage when I entered Northern Parade Infants School in Kipling Road (maybe it's still there?) where suddenly I wasn't allowed to read straight text, but instead had to 'break down' words (th'e c-a-t s-a-t on th-e m-a-t'). This drove me crazy, I recall! Farther along the Copnor Road I seem to remember a road leading off to the left that led to a brickworks on the left (and possibly also a railway crossing) and ended up at an airport with a observation area where you could watch small private aircraft take off and land, quite close up. That was quite a thrill for a small boy!

My father was an instructor in submarine gunnery in the Navy at HMS Vernon in the Naval Dockyard and it was always a treat to be taken there for open house once a year when he showed my mother and me around. (I recall a trip on the 'Admiral's Barge' and being scared out of my wits by looking into a porthole at a demonstration in the Davis Escape Apparatus training tank, where the swimmers wore grotesque, frightening masks!)

Another pleasure was the Hilsea Lido where you could rent a little paddle-boat shaped like a swan (possibly you still can?) The walk along the seafront was a regular occurence for us and I remember the off-shore Martello towers in the distance and wondered at the time what they were for. In town, my favourite destination was the Landport which, I seem to recall, had a number of galleries and a big circular 'hole' in the middle and a very extensive toy-department! Possibly, along with the Guildhall, it was destroyed during the war... I remember, too, Portsdown, where they used to hold parachute and skydiving shows.

On a personal note, I remember that, just before we moved to London in 1939, my father was scheduled to take part in the HMS Thetis submarine prototype test-run that ended in tragedy and the loss of all hands, but luckily he had been temporarily re-assigned to Chatham during that time. Over 12 years later, in 1951 in my last year at school, we had a 'careers day' when we could select one of a number of destinations to visit. I chose the Navy and the Dockyard at Portsmouth for reasons of pure nostalgia, never having been back there again in the intervening years. As always, lots had changed, although I did manage to tour HMS Victory, strangely, for the very first time!

I hope some of the things and places I've mentioned in this this short account will strike a familiar chord with current, or former residents of Pompey and other 'Hampshire Hogs' of my vintage!