Explore Portsmouth

The Mary Rose Museum shows the surviving hull of Henry VIII's warship Mary Rose, which sank in the Solent in 1545 and was raised in 1982. The museum, designed by WilkinsonEyre with Perkins+Will and opened in 2013, is built over the dry dock in which the hull lies. Thousands of objects recovered from the wreck, from weapons to the crew's belongings, are displayed beside it.

HMS Victory is a 104-gun first-rate ship of the line, floated out in 1765 and Admiral Horatio Nelson's flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. She has stood in dry dock at Portsmouth since 1922 and remains in commission as the flagship of the First Sea Lord. Visitors go aboard and see where Nelson fell, while a long restoration known as the Big Repair goes on around her.

Portsmouth Historic Dockyard is the part of HM Naval Base Portsmouth that is open to visitors, with historic naval buildings and dry docks beside the harbour. Its ships include HMS Victory, HMS Warrior and the First World War monitor HMS M.33, and the hull of the Tudor warship Mary Rose lies in its own museum. The National Museum of the Royal Navy has galleries on the site.

HMS Warrior is a steam-powered armoured frigate launched in 1860, one of the first two warships with an iron hull and armour plating, built in answer to France's ironclad Gloire. After decades as a depot ship and an oil jetty she was restored at Hartlepool, and since 1987 she has been moored at Portsmouth as a museum ship that visitors can explore deck by deck.

The Spinnaker Tower is a 170-metre observation tower on Portsmouth Harbour, opened in 2005 as the centrepiece of the harbour's redevelopment. Designed by the local firm HGP Architects, its two white arcs recall a spinnaker sail. Three viewing decks at 100, 105 and 110 metres look out over the city and over Portsmouth and Langstone harbours.

Portsmouth Cathedral, dedicated to St Thomas of Canterbury, began as a chapel founded around 1180 in Old Portsmouth. Its tower and nave were rebuilt in 1683–1693 after Civil War damage, and a wooden cupola was added in 1703. It became a cathedral in 1927 and was extended in stages until 1991.

The Round Tower guards the entrance to Portsmouth Harbour at the end of Broad Street in Old Portsmouth. A wooden tower built for Henry V around 1418–1426 was replaced in stone in the 1490s, and the top became a gun platform in 1847–1850. Visitors climb onto its roof to watch ships pass through the harbour mouth.

Southsea Castle is an artillery fort that Henry VIII built on the shore of Portsea Island in 1544 to defend the Solent. It was enlarged in the 1680s and again in the 19th century, and Portsmouth City Council has run it since 1960. Visitors can explore the keep and walk the ramparts, with views across the Solent to the Isle of Wight.

Osborne House is a former royal residence on the edge of East Cowes on the Isle of Wight, built between 1845 and 1851 for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert as a summer home. Albert designed it with the builder Thomas Cubitt in the style of an Italian Renaissance palazzo, with two belvedere towers. Victoria died here in 1901; visitors see the royal rooms and the gardens.