This weekend hundreds of local people and visitors enjoyed accessing some of the city’s historic gems as part of the Open Heritage Days.
Hidden treasures and well known local attractions flung open their doors to offer an insight into the heritage of Portsmouth.
Cllr Stephen Morgan, the city’s newly-appointed heritage champion joined local people with a marathon-like tour around the city to see the sights.
His visits over the weekend included a tour of the Kings Theatre in Southsea, a trip to see the drill room on Whale Island and HMS Excellent, a trip up to Wymering Manor Portsmouth’s oldest building, Hilsea Lido, a tour round the recently-opened new stage area at the New Theatre Royal and a visit over to the Victorian pumping station at Eastney.
A visit to Eastney Pumping Station
“This weekend has shown Pompey at its best. We should be rightly proud of our fantastic heritage and historic assets, and their potential, with suitable investment and care, for the future.
It has been great to meet so many volunteers who gave up their time to open the doors of sites across the city and improve access for all local people. I thank all those involved over the Heritage Open days for their hard work”.
Last week the council’s Cabinet appointed Cllr Morgan the city’s first heritage champion, a new role which aims to generate enthusiasm and awareness for the importance of the historic environment within the local authority and wider community.
Cllr Morgan added:
“This year’s events have been a great success, but too few people knew what was going on. We can change that with the help of others. Next year I want to work with local groups to make Heritage Open Days in Portsmouth even bigger and better”.
