Here are the details of maps for Southsea:
We have published three versions of this map, showing how the area changed across the years.
These detailed map are double-sided for maximum coverage. The main map covers most of Southsea with parts of Portsmouth. Coverage extends from Kings Terrace and Landport Terrace eastward to Highland Road Cemetery, and from Abingdon Road southward to Clarence Parade.
Features include Havelock Ward area, St Paul Ward area, Southsea Branch railway with East Southsea station (1896 map only), tramways, St Jude's church, St Bartholomew's church, St Simon's church, St Paul's church, St Matthew's church, St Margaret's church, Lumps Fort, Victoria Hall, Nazareth House, Havelock Park area, Jews Burial Ground, Craneswater Park area, Queen's Hotel, St John's College, breweries, and many streets of largely terraced housing, with each house neatly shown.
On the reverse we include adjacent sheet 83.16 extending coverage south to include South Parade Pier, Southsea Castle, East and West Batteries, Lumps Fort.
Note that the 1931 version is the more detailed of the three as it includes security features, such as Southsea Castle and Lumps Fort, which are only shown in outline form on the earlier maps.
The map links up with Hampshire Sheets 83.08 Central Portsmouth to the north, 83.11 Old Portsmouth to the west and 84.09 Eastney to the east.
You might find this Index Map useful.
Further information:
Tony Painter begins his introduction to the Southsea 1931 map with these words: "Southsea is a relatively recent extension of Portsmouth and began when the enlargement of the dockyard in the 19th century created a need for more housing. Before this period Portsmouth was constrained within the town walls and the area which later became Southsea was an inhospitable marshland, a wild and dangerous area, with scattered farms and isolated coastal fortifications". These maps show its development as a fashionable town, and eventually seaside resort, in its own right, with fine houses, a theatre, its own short-lived branch line, tramways and South Parade Pier. Our maps of Southsea are double-sided to give as full coverage as possible. Note that the 1931 version includes more details of the fortifications than the other editions.
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"The fort defences were reviewed in 1852 and a scathing report suggested that a single broadside from an enemy ship would “probably finish the defences of Southsea Castle for ever”. A Royal Commission in 1859 recommended the strengthening of coastal defences against possible land and sea attacks and the protection of Portsmouth by a ring of forts against the might of the French navy. Southsea Castle was to be one of these, supported by Lumps Fort, Eastney Batteries and Fort Cumberland protecting the southern approaches, batteries at King’s Bastion and the Point guarding the harbour and Forts Blockhouse and Monckton to the west. Other forts were built offshore and around the perimeter of Portsmouth – these would later become known as the ‘Palmerston follies’. The review of 1852 ordered the extension and rearming of Southsea Castle and by 1868 the west and east batteries had been added, each with 30 guns, and a fearsome 13.3 inch, 22 ton cannon known as Big Will."
