The Victorian seaside resort that grew up east of Old Portsmouth and now functions as the city's most lively district. The seafront has a long shingle beach, a pier, a small funfair, and a wide green common stretching back from the shore. Look across the Solent on a clear day for the Isle of Wight, just three miles away.
Inland, the streets are full of late-Victorian terraced housing and the student-bohemian fabric of cafes, bars, vintage shops and bookshops centred on Albert Road and Palmerston Road. Castle Road runs north into the medieval city. Southsea is also the home of the D-Day Story museum, Southsea Castle, the Rose Garden of Lumps Fort, and the Hovercraft terminal to the Isle of Wight.