Royal Navy Submarine Museum

Across the harbour at Gosport, reached by the short Gosport Ferry from the Portsmouth Hard. The museum tells the history of the Royal Navy submarine service from the Edwardian Holland 1 — Britain's first submarine, recovered from the seabed off Plymouth — to nuclear-powered boats from the Cold War.

The centrepiece is HMS Alliance, a 1947 patrol submarine in dry dock that you can walk through; the guided tour, given by ex-submariners, is excellent and not to be skipped. Allow two hours including the ferry.

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HMS Alliance was the last surviving British submarine to have served in the Second World War. It is now preserved as a war memorial to the 5,300 British submariners who have been lost at sea — every name is inscribed on the conning tower.

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