Would you know how to survive in the slums of Portsmouth’s sailortown? Do you know a ‘Dockyard Tortoise’ from a ‘Crocadillapig’?[1] In the sweltering heat of late July a lucky group of participants took part in our specially-designed youth outreach workshop, ‘Sickly Slums and Sailortowns.’ The event was coordinated by the University of Portsmouth’s UP for […]
Port Towns & Urban Cultures: International Histories of the Waterfront, c.1700 – 2000, Eds. Brad Beaven, Karl Bell and Robert James, (Palgrave Macmillan: Basingstoke, 2016) Despite the port’s prominence in maritime history, its cultural significance has long been neglected in favour of its role within economic and imperial networks. Defined by their intersection of maritime […]
Below, Port Towns & Urban Cultures’ first-ever visiting scholar, Laura Mier Valerón from the University of Oviedo (Spain), explains how she came to be involved with the project, outlines her research and discusses how being a visiting scholar with Port Towns & Urban Cultures has enhanced her research, skills and academic experiences. First of all, let me […]
Portsmouth, 21st May 1662: “I arrived here yesterday about two in the afternoon, and as soon as I had shifted myself I went to my wife’s chamber. Her face is not so exact as to be called a beauty, though her eyes are excellent good, and not anything in her face that in the least […]
On the 24 October 2015 I gave a brief lecture at the ‘Pop up University’, designed for 14-16 year olds at the Make and Craft Kitchen in Fratton. My paper was based upon my PhD research: women’s subjective experiences of the Second World War in Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight. The event was designed […]
Port Towns and Urban Cultures’ Dr Rob James is a project partner on a Heritage Lottery Funded bid with the Portsdown U3A (University of the Third Age). The project will establish the impact of the Battle of Jutland on the people of Portsmouth. It will identify those sailors who lost their lives at the battle […]
