Spinnaker Tower, Portsmouth, UK: England's impressive 170m tower

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Spinnaker Tower, Portsmouth, UK: England's impressive 170m tower

By Steve Meacham
Spinnaker Tower at Portsmouth by night.

Spinnaker Tower at Portsmouth by night.

It's 16 years since Portsmouth won its Spinnaker Tower, a millennium project begun in the year 2000 and rising majestically over the next five years above one of the most historic harbours in the world.

The enormous tower, resembling two sails blowing from a 170-metre mast, is one of the tallest accessible structures in the UK – with unforgettable views over the English Channel from its triple, 360-degree observation deck towards France: once a feared enemy, now a close ally.

It's more than 2½ times higher than London's Nelson's Column – which is apt considering Nelson's flagship, HMS Victory, lies in its shadow at some hour every day.

Nelson's HMS Victory at Portsmouth.

Nelson's HMS Victory at Portsmouth.

Yet the Spinnaker Tower has recently been in a war of a much more petty nature.

In July 2015, Portsmouth City Council struck a sponsorship deal with Emirates Airlines. Immediately the painters began converting the Spinnaker Tower to the Emirates' chosen colours: red and white.

Oh, the hullabaloo!

The 16th century Galleon Mary Rose, at Portsmouth Museum.

The 16th century Galleon Mary Rose, at Portsmouth Museum.Credit: Alamy

Red and white are the colours of Southampton FC, Portsmouth FC's arch enemies. A petition with 1000 blue, white and red Portsmouth signatures was quickly gathered. Emirates graciously conceded, choosing an alternative tower strip of blue, gold and white.

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I have emotional bonds with Portsmouth. My mother served here before she was married in the Wrens (Women's Royal Naval Service). As children we'd be packed into our tiny and unreliable car once a year to inspect where mum had climbed the rigging.

HMS Victory was always the highlight. Even then, the romance of the story — how a one-eyed, one-armed admiral who was seasick his entire naval career lay dying as he won the most decisive naval battle of the century against Napoleon's fleet at Trafalgar — struck a chord.

The Yomper sculpture by Philip Jackson at the Royal Marines Museum, Eastney, Portsmouth, Hampshire.

The Yomper sculpture by Philip Jackson at the Royal Marines Museum, Eastney, Portsmouth, Hampshire. Credit: Alamy

It still does, all these years later — even if Victory's masts are currently under repair.

There's so much else to see here in what is now called the National Museum of the Royal Navy Portsmouth.

From an Aussie's point of view, perhaps the most interesting exhibit, after the Victory, is HMS M33 — the sole remaining British warship from the Gallipoli campaign. A new, interpretative history brings the bloody history of Gallipoli alive.

The Mary Rose – Henry VIII's historic flagship which sank in the Solent, between Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight, in 1545 – was closed when we visited in May, but reopened in July with nine new viewing galleries. Despite the tragedy – only 35 crewmen rescued from 400 aboard – the Mary Rose played its part in establishing British superiority over the waves for the next 400 years.

Just walking around the city's historic centre is enjoyable in itself: some of the pubs look as if they've hardly changed since the days of pirates and press gangs.

Britain's impressive D-Day Museum, on the Clarence Esplanade near Southsea Castle, tells the graphic story of Operation Overlord, leading to the successful invasion of Normandy beaches on June 6, 1944.

But we're headed for another military institution, the Royal Marines Museum, further along the Esplanade in what were the Eastney Barracks. The marines – the Navy's only ship-based infantry – were formed in 1664 in the reign of Charles II. And for much of the intervening centuries they were based here in a handsome row of barracks which front onto Southsea Beach. Those buildings have now been sold off as private apartments, and the marines have moved to Plymouth.

But the officers' mess now houses a wonderful museum tracing the life of a fighting institution which has survived for more than 350 years.

My favourite story revolves around Hannah Snell, the so-called "female warrior", who lived as a marine for 16 years before anyone found out she was a woman (she was trying to find her errant husband, a Dutchman, who left her when she was eight months pregnant to go to sea).

There are memorials, too, to the Cockleshell Heroes of World War II, and to those marines who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan. But the most moving exhibits are those which tell the story of the Falklands War.

It's easy to forget what a close-run thing it was — culminating in an epic "yomp" across inhospitable territory that was heavily defended. Living history indeed.

TRIP NOTES

MORE INFORMATION

www.visitportsmouth.co.uk

GETTING THERE

Portsmouth is 119 kilometres south-west of London via the A3. There are regular trains from London's Waterloo Station.

TRAVELLING THERE

Captain's Choice 17-day Bespoke British Isles tour joins the MS Hebridean Sky in Portsmouth before setting sail to visit Penzance, Dublin, Douglas, the Outer Hebrides, the Orkney Islands, Inverness and Edinburgh. From $22,270 per person, twin share including flights from Australia, it departs Australia on June 4, 2017. Call 1300 176 681 or captainschoice.com.au

Steve Meacham travelled as guest of Captain's Choice.

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