Southsea's rock gardens remembered | Nostalgia
Who can remember, long before the D-Day Museum was built and Castle Field established, when the rock gardens used to pass right up to the kerb of Southsea Esplanade up to the junction with Castle Avenue, now Avenue De Caen?
It’s no wonder Southsea attracted so many visitors.
I doubt if there was any vandalism, damaging trees and plants, as there can be today.
And what a pity this postcard was not printed in colour for the gardens must have looked beautiful.
In the far distance can be seen the naval war memorial unveiled by the Duke of York, the future King George VI, on October 15, 1924, so it dates the photograph nicely.
Castle Avenue changed its name to Avenue De Caen on June 6, 1987, when Portsmouth was twinned with the French port city.
The D-Day Story museum is now located on the immediate left of the photograph.
• Does anyone remember, and can anyone tell me more about, the ‘Zion’ Congregational Methodist Chapel. In his Illustrated History of Portsmouth, WG Gates mentions several churches built under the Zionist faith but which one is this?
• Who remembers the Kon-Tiki bar at the Sinah Warren holiday complex, Hayling Island?
It really was the place to go if you were on the island and full of single girls, as I remember!
The bar had a South Sea island theme with an inner roof made of reeds. Exotic island scenes were fixed to the front of the bar. I often went there in the 1970s and it was the first place I saw dance floor lights that made a white shirt glow.