Portsmouth
— — the only English city that is also an island.
Not only on a wall.
“A naval city built on Portsea Island, on the south coast of England, looking across the Solent to the Isle of Wight. The harbour has launched Royal Navy ships for more than five hundred years, and HMS Victory still rests in a dry dock here, the last surviving ship of the line. Above the waterfront the Spinnaker Tower lifts 170 metres off the quay. Dickens was born up the road. The Tudor warship Mary Rose is in a museum near the dock, and the ferries to Gosport still cross the harbour every few minutes. from the studio
Portsmouth, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Portsmouth is a port city in Hampshire on England's south coast, set almost entirely on Portsea Island and the only English city built on an island. Its population is around 210,000. The harbour has served the Royal Navy since the dockyard was established under Henry VII in 1495, and the Historic Dockyard remains the home of HMS Victory, Nelson's flagship at Trafalgar in 1805, and of the Tudor warship Mary Rose, which sank in 1545 and was raised from the Solent floor in 1982. The city looks south across the Solent to the Isle of Wight.
Portsmouth Harbour is one of the deepest natural harbours in northern Europe, sheltered by the narrow channel between Portsea Island and Gosport. Wightlink and Hovertravel ferries cross to the Isle of Wight from the Hard, and small passenger boats shuttle to Gosport in under five minutes. The Spinnaker Tower rises 170 metres above the quay at Gunwharf, opened in 2005, and on a clear day the view reaches past Spithead to the Nab Tower and the eastern Solent. The tides here run strong; the double high water of the Solent gives the harbour an unusually long working window each day.
Charles Dickens was born in Portsmouth in 1812; his birthplace at 393 Old Commercial Road is now a small museum. Portsmouth was heavily bombed in the Second World War, and the D-Day landings of June 1944 were launched from its shores. The annual Victorious Festival fills Southsea Common with around 100,000 visitors each August, and the seafront fairground at Clarence Pier has run since 1861. The city's two football clubs and its naval roots give the place a steady local rhythm that runs through summer regattas, Navy Days, and the close of season.