Seeing Friends in Former Army Barracks

Although we have visited Portsmouth  often, not least as  result of  ferries  from France docking there after holidays abroad, Southsea was until recently,  a coastal town unvisited by the maytrees family.

Friends of ours,   just before Covid-19 lockdown, purchased an un-modernised flat in the old Southsea  army barracks, which the husband who is an architect, spent many months, with assistance from IKEA, Wicks and others, modernising with excellent results. Lynette and David  kindly invited us down for a picnic at Southsea beach which we enjoyed along with viewing their delightful flat. The two friends feature elsewhere on this blog,  for example at: Postal Museum

Rather surprisingly, in view of the pouring rain in Wimbledon, Southsea was quite sunny that afternoon. One or two iPhone photographs probably illustrate the afternoon better than words:

The barracks parade ground  (below right) is  untouched and the beach (below left) deserted

Huge container ships passed by from time to time on their way to Portsmouth

• We found a large coffee house overlooking the beach near to the barracks and very much enjoyed coffee, croissants and catching up so near to the shore in the sunshine.

The way back along the A3 was about an hour and a quarter's drive.

 

Recollecting that a former HCPT helper  Robert had been appointed as chief executive of the Portsmouth naval museum in the 1970s I wondered if a visit there could be worthwhile, not least to see Henry VIIIth's Mary Rose. However I believe that   since its initial salvage in the 1980s when we last visited,  The Mary Rose  has been installed in its own museum, which probably makes visiting rather more formal than previously.