So much has changed over the years despite the fact it feels like I only left secondary school a few years ago (and I’m sure I am not the only one).
Here are just some of the tell-tale signs of someone who went to school in the city in the 80s and 90s – see how many of these you remember!
5. A swim in the Pyramids in its heyday
Opening in 1988 the Pyramids was a new and exciting place to go with family or friends and I would easily spend a large portion of the day there. Those flumes were just brilliant - and the fact it had a cafe inside was just brilliant. School children in the 80s and 90s enjoyed it in its heyday and were able to to take their own children there as well - mine included. Then came the devastating decision to close the pool, now run down and making a loss, in 2020 and replace it with a soft play centre. Great for those with small children I'm sure, but I've never set foot inside it again. Photo: The News
6. PJ and Duncan
Sure, today they are Ant and Dec but back in the 1990s we knew them as PJ and Duncan off Byker Grove which was essential post-school TV viewing. Then the duo launched themselves a pop career as PJ and Duncan performing at, along other places, the Portsmouth Guildhall, including that earworm which I'm now humming 'Let's Get Ready to Rhumble'. Of course Declan Donnelly and Anthony McPartlin then rebranded as the 'Ant and Dec' we know them now. Photo: Sunderland Echo
7. Blockbuster
First we had Betamax, and then it was VHS - and a trip to the video shop was so very often a highlight of the week. Of course it was often a race to get a copy of the latest release before they were all gone for the night! This Blockbuster in North End was my own regular haunt. Photo: Allan Hutchings
8. Those zig zags
Okay, I'll concede many generations of Portsmouth's children will have done this one but it is such a nostalgia rite of passage for every city child that I had to include it. Those zig zags up and down the prom have been a path for many a child to follow for many a years - including those in the 80s and 90s. Sadly these are all slowing disappearing as the new sea defences are installed. And although the pathways of the new defences do look lovely I, like many of us Pompey folk, will lament the loss of those zig zags. Photo: Contributed