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Portsmouth Leasing

Did You Know?

Ayers Rock in Australia, also known as Uluru, was named after Portsmouth native Sir Henry Ayers in 1873. The son of a dockyard worker, he emigrated to Australia, and was the premier of South Australia for a record five years running

Portsmouth’s nickname is Pompey, and the origins of this nickname are much disputed. Some say it was the slurred pronunciation of Portsmouth by drunken sailors; other attribute it to the captured French ship La Pompee which was captured in Portsmouth in 1793.

Acclaimed classic author of Oliver Twist and Great Expectations, Charles Dickens, was born in Portsmouth. He even went on to include the city in his novel Nicholas Nickleby. Portsmouth also featured in the Jane Austen novel Mansfield Park, as the main character is also from the city. Other literary greats who also spent time in Portsmouth included Rudyard Kipling and H. G. Wells as well as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the author of Sherlock Holmes.

Hollywood star and Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger once lived in Portsmouth and was even a member of Southsea gym.

Portsmouth is the only city in the UK with a population density greater than that of London: more than 200,000 people live in the city, which covers 15.54 square miles. As one of the UK’s most prominent ports, it has been a significant naval port for centuries, and is home to the world’s oldest dry dock.

It’s thought there are at least seven other cities with the same name, all in the United States. Portland, Ohio, New Hampshire, Iowa, Michigan, Virginia, Rhode Island and an abandoned fishing village in North Carolina all have their own Portsmouth.

As one of the UK’s most prominent ports, Portsmouth has been a significant naval port for centuries, and is home to the world’s oldest dry dock. Portsmouth Harbour also processes 100 per cent of the UK’s Jersey potatoes, 100 per cent of the UK’s Moroccan citrus fruits and 70 per cent of the UK’s bananas.

Portsmouth appears on the oldest surviving route map of Great Britain. The Gough Map, which dates from about 1360, shows 600 towns and cities with Portsmouth labelled “Portis Mouth” and represented by a single red-roofed building.

The Gosport Ferry has existed for centuries and back in 1809 it was simply a double-ended rowing boat named a ‘Wherry’. This is in stark contrast to the large ferry boats which carry 297 passengers between Gosport and Portsmouth today.

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, compiled in the ninth century, states that in AD 501 ‘Port and his two sons Beida and Maegla came to Britain with two ships in the place which is called Portes mutha, and killed a young British man, a very noble man.’ It is the first known appearance of the name Portsmouth in a written source.

 HMS Bounty set sail from Portsmouth for Tahiti under the command of Captain Bligh on the first breadfruit voyage in 1787. His mission was to pick up breadfruit plants and transport them to the West Indies to become a cheap source of food for slaves. It all went horribly wrong.