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Southsea is a seaside resort and a geographic area of Portsmouth, Portsea Island in England. Southsea is located 1.8 miles (2.8 km) to the south of Portsmouth's inner city-centre. Southsea is not a separate town as all of Portsea Island's settlements (including Southsea) were incorporated into the boundaries of Portsmouth in 1904. Southsea began as a fashionable 19th-century Victorian seaside resort named Croxton Town, after a Mr Croxton who owned the land. As the resort grew, it adopted the name of nearby Southsea Castle, a seafront fort constructed in 1544 to help defend the Solent and approaches to Portsmouth Harbour. In 1879, South Parade Pier was opened by Princess Edward of Saxe-Weimar in Southsea. The pier began operating a passenger steamer service across the Solent to the Isle of Wight. This service gave rise to the idea of linking Southsea and its pier to Portsmouth's railway line, and for tourists to bypass the busy town of Portsmouth and its crowded harbour. East Southsea railway station, along with the Southsea Railway and Fratton railway station were jointly opened on 1 July 1885 by Lady Ada Mary Willis (née Neeld), wife of General Sir George Willis, the Lieutenant Governor of Portsmouth. Southsea subsequently grew into a dense residential suburb and large, distinct commercial and entertainment area, separate from the town of Portsmouth up until Southsea and the whole of Portsea Island were incorporated into the town borough of Portsmouth in 1904. Due to declining use and World War I, the Southsea Railway line and its East Southsea station were closed on 6 August 1914. To maintain Southsea's tourism, the Southsea station name was moved and merged with Portsmouth's main town centre railway station in 1925, officially becoming known as Portsmouth & Southsea railway station. A year later in 1926, Portsmouth was granted official city status, while its main railway station retained its "Portsmouth & Southsea" name, which has led many non-locals and visitors to wrongly assume that Southsea is still a separate town near to Portsmouth.

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Related concepts (12)

Southsea

Hovercraft

A hovercraft (: hovercraft), also known as an air-cushion vehicle or ACV, is an amphibious craft capable of travelling over land, water, mud, ice, and other surfaces. Hovercraft use blowers to produce a large volume of air below the hull, or air cushion, that is slightly above atmospheric pressure. The pressure difference between the higher pressure air below the hull and lower pressure ambient air above it produces lift, which causes the hull to float above the running surface.

Southsea Castle

Southsea Castle, historically also known as Chaderton Castle, South Castle and Portsea Castle, is an artillery fort originally constructed by Henry VIII on Portsea Island, Hampshire, in 1544. It formed part of the King's Device programme to protect against invasion from France and the Holy Roman Empire, and defended the Solent and the eastern approach to Portsmouth. The castle had a square central keep, two rectangular gun platforms to the east and west, and two angled bastions to the front and rear, and was an early English example of the trace italienne-style of fortification popular on the Continent.