Thank you. A few years before I was born but some things have not changed much. The rock gardens look very familiar and I can remember when the fountains were working and that at Speakers Corner there was the Guiness Clock for a while. A pity they did not rebuild the Guildhall clock tower as of the original. I was a schoolboy in the Portsmouth Youth Orchestra when the new Guildhall reopened and we performed on stage at the ceremony. I like to say, in a "stage whisper" that I was in the orchestra that did the first orchestral performance on that stage. I hated it when they built those ugly offices around the Guildhall. Before, you could see the Guildhall Square as you walked south down Commercial Road. Now it is a hidden gem. I wish they would demolish them! I am told most of the offices there are unused anyway.
I really enjoyed seeing those images of pre-WWII Portsmouth. 20 years after WWI and 20 years before I trod those same streets as a teenager. So many things still the same and so many gone from the Blitz. The Camber. Portchester Castle. The Royal Garrison Church. Southsea. Very enjoyable viewing.
@@dulls8475 Not sure, but it was what is now…Portsmouth Grammar School, which is at the top of the High Street, Old Portsmouth not far from the Camberwell Docks, perhaps 400 yards away!?
I had some PIMCO tokens as a kid and I can remember that platform near South Parade Pier- you could take a little boat up to Southampton- and see the huge ocean liners- and we did. Crossley Condor bus at 3-44, one survived as a breakdown wagon- cut down to one deck- it made a loud grinding sound as it chugged along. The camera just has to record the Co-op ad on that bus! The Co-op was a very Big Deal in Portsmouth and opened one of Britain's first supermarkets in 1948. Locksway Road- the old canal entrance and the chalets nearby and on down to the Glory Hole and Langstone Harbour which I used to gaze out over- as I sat bored in school. The Garrison Church- before it was bombed and Old Portsmouth including the George Hotel- destroyed by the bombing.
Some familiar sights and some that are just memories . Certainly a lot of the character and beauty was lost in the necessary - but nasty rebuilding after the war . Lovely to see Milton locks , I can just about remember the fishing community wooden shacks and houseboats from when I was a young kid . Amazing to see it in colour .
PIMCO (The Portsea Island Mutual Co-operative Society) made a number of these brilliant actuality films during the 1930s. They're a wonderful record of times long gone by, reflecting social tastes, fashions and most precious of all, everyday life. As a transport nut I particularly loved the scenes of a Portsmouth Corporation double deck Crossley/English Electric bus (the first diesel buses delivered to the Corporation in 1932) at 3:37 and the AEC/Cravens trolleybus at 6:19, the beautiful condition of these reflecting a time of great civic pride. The white roofs predated the war, during which they gained grey camouflaged roofs which I believe they retained for some time thereafter? Great upload!
Another organisation with a long name was the Portsea Island Gas, Light and Coke Company, whose offices were on the corner of King Henry Street, which might now be the Isambard Kingdom Brunel pub.The bus was a Crossley Condor, of whiich a cut back chassis with breakdown body still exists. White bus roofs came back around 1962, but the trolleybuses neer did. To be honest, it was impractical, since the trolley booms made a mess of the roofs in wet weather. Where was the high water fountain at 5:33?
I think you're right. In Germany and Poland they repaired their cities brick by brick but unfortunately our town planners were too arrogant and thought they knew better so I suppose we've now got the towns and cities we deserve.
It's difficult to know. PIMCO were clearly interested in the nicer areas - not much of Landport, for example. You could make a similar video now - focus on the Sally Port and Portchester Castle as in this video, discreet shots of Victoria Park maybe, or the Spinnaker Tower- and idealise contemporary Portsmouth as this does the 1937 area. Fascinating to see the museum and the Guildhall as was. Personally it's a little disappointing that rougher or commercial areas such as Charlotte Street were not filmed, as our family butcher business there was also obliterated on that same night as the Guildhall was hit and the George Hotel was lost on 10.1.1941, but, as I say, that would not be on the PIMCO agenda.
Excellent film. The lingering shots give you time to really look at what’s there. My mum and dad would have been 17 or 18, depending on when these images were filmed, both born and raised in Pompey.
Interesting to see the George hotel, where Nelson spent his last night on land. It was destroyed in an air raid on the night of 10th January 1941. The same night the guildhall changed forever.
great footage....when you think of the open space, bowling greens racecourse and tennis courts in Paulsgrove, all pre bombed areas. You need a tin opener to move around Pompey now..
@@BroonParker No we have lost common decency. It is the type of people we have lost and that cannot be replaced. You and I for example are the very poor replacements.
This was my parents’ Portsmouth. Mine was from 1947 to 1965 and it was a crap place to grow up. The labour governments or councils destroyed a lot of the remaining old houses and put up the absolute worst high rises. Later it improved and has become one of the most beautiful cities with fabulous surrounding areas. I was so disappointed to visit 2 weeks ago after 5 years to see yet more disgusting high rises in the city to house overseas students. What a travesty or maybe tragedy for Portsmouth.
No, the Portsmouth city in England, that the Portsmouth in Virginia USA was named after. Established around 1000+ years before. I do want to visit the Portsmouths in USA some time but it will be weird having places like Norfolk, Manchester and Southampton in all the "wrong" places relative to Portsmouth ;)
Portsmouth is miles better now, the more racial diversity in a society or municipality,,the better, no matter what the brexit gammon might tell you. Frankly, Portsmouth in the 1930s was hideously white 👎🏿
Crazy how people can see only race in whatever they look at, not how clean orderly and well kept this city used to be, I'm sure it wasn't so great everywhere but nice to see some older monuments in a different light, we are sorry that our country was mainly white in theese times but that's what they were different times not better not worse just different