Gosport's Abandoned Railway Walk.
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- Опубліковано 8 вер 2024
- #EveryDisusedStation #Gosport #Railway
Welcome to this weeks installment of abandoned and disused railways. You find us in Hampshire asking the question as to why, when you want to build a railway to Portsmouth, you instead build it to Gosport! In 1841.
Paul and Rebecca are attempting to visit Every Disused Station in the UK. Thats all 6800 of them. Join them on their adventures.
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Great to see my local towns. The G'Spot on the road was redone by the council after they realised the mistake. It went a few years back. It was at the Peel Common roundabout
8( Bureaucrats... no sense of humor
guess too many people found it for their liking
I too saw it and thought that it was the Peel Common roundabout!
I am amazed by the amount of railway abandonment that came to the UK in the 1950's. One of the things that interests me is the quality of the infrastructure on these lines but also the size as it all looks so small and quaint to my American eyes. The only place I can imagine seeing rail lines like these is in theme parks. It makes it that much more surprising that it was still in operation in the 1950's and 60's. It must have been quite a shock to see it disappear the way it did. Railways always seem like such permanent things. Hard to except their fragility.
The railway wasnb't allowed to enter Portsmouth because of the fortifications at Hilsea (one of the Portsmouth Papers books covers this pretty well) After a while the War Office relented and the lines could be penetrated by the railway, who had to fund the drawbridge, cost of tunneling through Hilsea Lines and the defensive doors at each end of the tunnel. The line was jint LBSCR/LSWR. If you take the walk along the Lines quite a bit of this is still visible, the tunnel obviously, the place where the doos were and some of the mountings for the swing bridge, even though it is now fixed. Just the other side of the road at Gosport Station is a similar tunnel through Gosport Lines wich can be seen quite easily. The station did have an overall roof but wartime bombing put paid to that. There's more to see at Fareham where the line wnt towards Eastleigh with the old pre tunnel route and the Meon Valley junction and line.
I wonder when the whole thing about it being due to rivalry started. Was it assumed to be so by the residents in the very beginning, or did they only think about it afterwards?
Yeah the fourtifications are a problem
Always thought that the powers that be missed a trick with a light rail / tram scheme that could have used much of these old rail routes - gosport is I think the largest town in the U.K. without a rail link.
Great video 👍🏻
Agree - though they did actually put a proposal together but it lost its funding. The Admiralty didn't help - it included a submersible tube from Gosport to Portsmouth but they vetoed it because of the new aircraft carriers. Light rail/tram would have solved Gosport's problem that the station was half a mile from the harbour, again due to Admiralty reluctance in the 1840s to let it near the fortifications. That contributed to its original demise in 1953 - it was quicker to take the ferry to Portsmouth Harbour and hop on an electric train to London there.
I’ve been advocating this for at least 30 years that old beds should have been used for light railways or trams, the amount of millions£. wasted on surveying, ripping up and filling in these structures that are already there is incredulous to the local people who want a proper public transport system, when I see in my own lifetime the amount of tram systems ripped up in nearly every UK city and now the obscene amount of money being used reinstating the lines and as usual the taxpayers and ratepayers are paying for these policies, even scrapping the trolley buses was a short sighted idea as they are now installing battery buses but what do these urban planners care they are quite happy wasting money and time to secure their worthless jobs when everything was already in place, sorry for the rant but stupidly is high on my list of pet hates and local government and parliament are full of worthless idiotic people
There were railcars trialled on the gosport branch after closure but it didn’t save that line or any others.
@@highdownmartin Though they helped revitalise a fair number of lines, and definitely saved one - Witham to Braintree which was listed for closure by Beeching, received railbuses and the traffic grew so much that two-car dmus were needed and the line is now an electrified outer suburban route. Conversely, Witham to Maldon didn't gain much traffic and was closed - it would be useful now.
Interesting to go back and look at it. The busway could potentially be extended with the current cycleway shifted to one side in places, and the overbridges are all still in place, but there are a few places where new buildings have been put in the way and getting round Fort Brockhurst and Gosport stations is tricky. Reinstatement as heavy or light rail would have been reasonably OK up to about a mile from Gosport town centre, after which street running would be needed; the line really would need to reach the harbour and the Portsmouth ferries.
I can't believe that you two where here! You must have walked past my house when you couldn't walk down where the buses go! I have lived in Gosport for 16 years and didn't realise that you could walk most of the old train route, but now I know I will go and look for myself! Thank you to both of you as this has made my Sunday!
And much of the bits that you can't walk, you can ride, on the busway that is built on the first 3 miles from Fareham.
@@iankemp1131 I've done the bus ride loads of times! but I didn't know about the platforms just passed the old station house! when it gets warner I'm off to have a look.
@@valfaulkner648 - At the point where pedestrians are disallowed, presumably one can bicycle?
@@gregtaylor6146 Yes you can! I keep saying I would love to either cycle or walk, but haven't yet! It's beautiful when you look down the old track!
@@valfaulkner648 - Many thanks Val, I'm obliged.
I think I read somewhere that the reason Portsmouth didn't originally have a line was because they didn't want a breach in Hillsea Lines defences at the north end of Portsmouth island. This was subsequently allowed which is why a line now exists.u
We wish we'd known you were coming our way! Amanda and I live in one of the old railway cottages alongside the Stokes Bay Railway. We have a very interesting 1860s map of the line we could have shown you while having a freshly-ground coffee.
We couldn't help noticing that you missed out Jackie Spencer's bridge - next time, perhaps? Cheers, Paul M.
This is wonderful. I moved away from the area 44 years ago but have so many memories of Gosport and Fareham. My grandmother and best friend lived in Gosport and I so often heard about the station there, viewing it a few times long after it had closed. Thanks for this video...I'll ensure I show my mother and I've subscribed to your channel.
I remember being told decades ago that the Stokes Bay line was laid to enable Queen Victoria to catch her vessel to the Isle of Wight and Osborne House without having to alight at a normal station and then drive to the sea terminal. (Keeping away from the hoi-poloi y'know')
I used to live in Fareham and often drove past the derelict Gosport Station site. I thought back then that the magnificent façade and all the land would be a wonderful development opportunity. And you just showed me that someone else thought the same thing in about the last four years...
Keep watching, more videos to follow!
Also , the Pompey / Southampton rivalry pre-dates the football clubs. Its all about the dockyards. You may want to investigate this further. Anyway , great vid and well done..from a Gosport resident 👍
Interesting video from the largest town in the UK without a railway station! I remember a few years ago there was talk of building a tram/light rail net work in Portsmouth with a tunnel to Gosport and then the line would run up the old trackbed of this line to Fareham.
Paul and Rebecca are the Burns and Allen of historical transportation locations, amazing chemistry and comedic timing that only a loving couple could give
“Say goodnight Rebecca”.
first walked it in the 80s , that's where i have my track clip etc from :) which is next to me as i type... have not been back walking the line since it was converted into a busway. there were plans for trams etc etc across to Portsmouth, back up across and down ... If only ... such a shame that Gosport now looks like it does :(
One of my earliest memories is of being in a pushchair at the level crossing at Fort Brockhurst station, waiting whilst a (steam) train passed by. Just down from the station the line passed the end of my aunties back garden.
I used to walk the line as a child. There was also a branch line that went off to the mod base, and freight trains were also still used this line in the 90s
My uncle took me and my cousin to Gosport station when it was derelict in the late 70's. No fences to stop you looking around. Amazing place. I think the platform roof was partly burned down in the second world war.
It's a god job that you didn't find that G'spt joke! But it's lovely to find Gosport Station, Wouldn't mind visiting Gosport Station one day myself. Great Video Paul and Rebecca
Thank you for exploring this one, I grew up in Gosport but now live in Australia, so its great to relive some old memories and see how places have changed.
My home town Gosport. My parents lived in Station Rd when I was born. I don't remember the house as we moved to Gilkicker when I was a baby.
That's interesting, I shall be moving to the Alverstoke area shortly, the Stokes bay branch, is around 2 minutes from my new house. Apparently the pillars for the pier were still in place until the sixties? and were blown up by the Navy. There was another short branch to Priddy's Hard, named after Jane Priddy who sold the Land to the Navy, it became a large armament area. A few years ago, I explored Gosport station, it was still a ruin at that time. I'm looking forward to exploring it all.
When my dad lived at Gosport I would often walk or cycle along the course of the stokes bay line and go swimming in the sea! It passes a place called anglesea which is an uncompleted crescent like that at bath,!
Ultimate pedantry - in Sussex you're always unsure whether places are by-sea or on-sea, but Lee is technically Lee-on-the-Solent. But plenty of people locally call it Lee-on-Solent.
Had you crossed the road opposite Gosport Station and continued a little bit further on towards Royal Victoria you would have seen some tracks in situ and evidence of the level crossing.
the crossing just before the Royal Engineers mews is in situ, as is a section of track across the road and it looks like the former goods branch into the harbor itself is still there but reused by utility companies
Also, if possible.. as my OCD is kicking off.. the writing about the stations in the video it shows Gospprt instead of Gosport in various places.
I noticed that too. (and ‘instead’ is just one word.😉)
This station was on cockleshell heroes xxx❤❤ we live in gosport and love it. queen victoria travelled by train to go to her pad osbourne house isle of wight. Xx stokes bay had a pier which has now gone.
Excellent to see my local area. Many years ago, my friend and I walked the route from Brockhurst to Fareham when the track was still intact.
Would love to have seen that
I have a photo from maybe 2018 with the track all covered in snow from by the leisure centre
My partner is from Gosport and he showed me the old station and where the line was. Really interesting to learn more from your video 😊
I literally used to live right near here! And I’ve got photos of from where there was old track until a couple of years ago when they ripped it up to extend the bus route
I also used to regularly run / cycle the exact route you walked! This was very weird to watch 🙈
Lovely walk to the fort etc xx liz ❤❤❤❤
I live in gosport and if you had crossed the road by the station that's now houses and you mentioned kings and Queens had gone through the opposite side of the road behind bushed and a French is where the other private stop was
😂😂😂
Fascinating line, which looks as if it might have made a great heritage ride had it survived!
You missed the tracks and tunnel leading to Clarence Yard,in St George's barracks. Prince Albert had to get a law passed to have the tunnel built because it went through the defensive embankment of Gosport.
The Station Masters house ,with its mysterious slot in the back wall for handing documents to the crew.
You'll have to do a follow up.
Love the videos by the way.
Remember gosport station derelict in the 1970s. Great to see it repurposed and looking good.
It took a long time to persuade the admiralty to allow the lines to be pierced.
You need to visit Saltburn station in Cleveland. The line from the station used to go a short distance into the back of the former Zetland Hotel.
Another lovely video, Paul & Rebecca. Sadly, some gremlin seems to’ve gotten to you vid a misspelt Gosport as Gospprt. Know it couldn’t have been either of you! See you next week!
The station did previously have a roof - two in fact but not at the same time! First one was bombed and destroyed in WW2 and the second erected afterwards and pretty-much lasted until the end of freight services (1969). The latter was largely just made-up of a basic steelwork design and not a patch on the original version which was more ornate. Funny enough, the station was a fortified structure given it's proximity to Portsmouth and use by the Royal Navy. Anyway, hope this helps and I look forward to more videos in the near future. And if you haven't been there before, try to visit Calshot. Although no railway-related stuff there, there's a huge old hanger which was used to build and store flying boats during and after WW2. It's a great building (now re-purposed for leisure use) but still worth a 'mooch'. Enjoy!
I know the area quite well. I think there was a branch off to the armaments stores also. Many thanks as always for your very interesting subject. Take care.
Where youve walked is our local cycle track xx the black bridge. Gaffers its like being on holiday living here. Xxx❤❤❤❤ liz
Have always hoped you'd come to my town. Gutted to have missed you. Would have loved to bump into you.
You mentioned the station (at 6:46) with a design you hadn't seen before. This looks like a transshipment point for two railroads of different gauges. This was used sometimes in the pre-Civil War American South. Tracks of the two different lines would be parallel, and freight could be cross-loaded between the cars directly using the inside doors and terminating freight offloaded to the warehouses on the outside doors. I don't know if that is the case with your station, but that is what immediately came to mind when I saw that station layout.
I remember when the gosport station was derelict. Xx
Welcome to my local area. I use alot of the roads / cycle lanes you've walked and showed to day. Plus I know where the appreviation is (bottom of Newgate lane east)
My neck of the woods, used to drive over the G'SPT every day but it got changed to GOSP'T - its at the bottom of Newgate lane on the roundabout.
Sad times.
Always liked Gosport, really interesting video
I appreciate all the in-depth behind the scenes research that makes your videos informative and entertaining. Great work.
Hilarious, especially the joke that wasn't. Funniest bit though was the "No Pedestrians" sign and saying you would have to find another way when you were standing right next to a bus-stop. 👍😂
Lovin your films. Helping me thru being bedridden & recovering from the flu. Knew about Elmore halt but not the Gomer & Browndown ones. Love being able to understand the historical landscape better when I dogwalk round there. Thanks for doin the research & making it fun. GB
Great Stuff as always!! Thanks for giving up your time for the likes of Us, your dedicated followers.
Lol, visual gags work fine too.
That beginning 😊
Your love for each other keeps these videos very entertaining and pleasing.
That Royal Victoria Gosport station screams "THIS IS A STATION" and adds in a little footnote (for Their Majesties of course as you already know...)
Absolutely fabulous vlog ❤️. Thank you. You both really work hard. Love your boundless enthusiasm. So entertaining. 🙏🙏👌🙌
1:20 - ‘Straight outa Fareham’ - wasn’t that an NWA album?
Thanks for this one. I spent 6 months at HMS Sultan (next to fort brockhurst) in 2006/2007 on the network rail apprenticeship scheme, brought back many happy memories
The road crossing at Fort Brockhurst Station features in the 1955 film 'The Cockleshell Heroes'
Hey!
How dare you come to my home town without popping by for a cuppa!
Love your vids, amazing you were here.
grand show
Well thanks
I have been to Stokes Bay from Gosport. Just another pommy gravel beach! As is most of those southern beaches.
That's what we locals loved about it. Kept people like you out wanting tacky food and other tacky totally unnecessary paraphernalia for freely enjoying natural surroundings unsullied by the reek of stale fish and chips and rubbish littering the joy of finding fascinating designs on stones and sea shells and the like.
Yeah, if you want south coast sand, go to Bournemouth, Weymouth or the Isle of Wight.
I really enjoy your videos, and wish I had known you were coming to Gosport, I’d have joined you and shown you the bits you missed.
If you had continued to follow the route of the railway past Gosport station, you would have seen the tunnel through the old town ramparts and some of the actual track of Queen Victoria’s private line as it approaches Royal Clarence Yard. You could also have seen the route of the track leading to her private station.
I grew up in Fareham and on the Eastleigh line there was a small piece of track that came off the main line and rejoined further near Wickham, this land was filled in and our gardens of the whole street was extended. This was in Hetaher Gardends and from Highlands road you can follow the old path on foot under the motorway and up to near the old site of Knowle hospital.
Nice video again. I was so thrilled to see you were in my "manor" but were you in a hurry? You missed so much.
When you were at the Gosport station - built so grandly because Queen Victoria used to pass through there on her way to Osborne House on the Isle of Wight - if you'd just crossed the road towards the Royal Navy Victualling Yard (Clarence Marina now, pronounced Clarence as in Clarence House), you would have seen the rail line that passed in a tunnel through the banked defenses, across Weevil lane and into the Yard, where there is still an engine shed, where the Queen's carriage would have been stored, and the Royal landing pier. Clarence yard is now open to public access but the part of the yard with the shed and pier is not.
You also could have carried on along the coast to Lee on the Solent where the branch line ran from the Fort Brockhurst junction, terminating where the old tourist pier once stood and the original station still stands, although much modified and now an amusements arcade.
I can only guess you ran out of time...or energy 😆
You're welcome back ant time 😉
You also forgot to mention that, although the line finally closed to all passenger and commercial traffic by 1969, the northern section was kept open 'til 1991 to serve the Royal Naval Armaments Depo at Bedenham and would see a train about once a month, with a cargo of nuclear war heads...or maybe not. All terribly hush-hush don't y' know 🤫
This was a wonderful look at the disused railways of G'spot LOL. To have a abandon railway in your back garden is such a cool thing. Nothing like that in my country!
Many thanks!
i used to love watching the trains from my Nans back garden Oakdene when i was a kid
If you come back down here to do Lee On The Solent branch, you could also look at the branches to Frater and Priddys Hard.
The closest I can think to the treatment of Gosport station post axe was that of Wolverhampton Low Level where some attempt was made to preserve the station's historic façade whilst inserting modern housing elements. Also closing Gosport has always seemed like one of the more obvious mistakes of Beeching, as it was (is) quite a large town not to have a railway station.
Gosport Station closed to passenger traffic in 1953 - which is well pre-Beeching. It closed to remaining freight in 1969 - which is well post-Beeching...but never mind let's slag off the good Doctor again...everybody blames the Doctor and he's everybody's favourite scapegoat...really because all political parties opposed the cuts in opposition, yet implemented them in government...every party.
So rather than blame every party and the politicians responsible, it's convenient to have a scapegoat, who, it must be recognised was appointed and empowered by a Tory Minister who owned a road building company, and ultimately fled abroad to Monaco to avoid the UK tax authorities...nothing shady there then...
Incidentally, I'd love it if all the people who so readily bandy around the phrase "Beeching Cuts" were prepared to read the two Beeching Reports (Blue Book and Red Book) and their Addenda (they are most revealing) then follow up with "Off the Rails" the Richard Marsh book, which offers considerable insight into some of the subsequent politics...you'll find a story of successive governments on both sides quite happy to perform cuts( in the Doctor's name of course), but unprepared, until it was all too late, to put in (or in many cases even acknowledge the need for) the required accompanying investment.
I really don't like what they have done to Gosport Station. I went around it and took some photos years ago for a uni project and it was derelict but it's grandeur shone through. It looks a bit like a toytown station now, especially the half arches and lintel across the former track bed which is far from how it used to look.
@@cogidubnus1953 Plus Beeching strongly advocated and supported key improvements like Inter-City and Freightliner that helped establish the modern railway. Most (but not all) of the lines he axed would be of little use today. Some of the worst closures came after him in the 70s. Agree about "Off the Rails", a great book.
From stokes Bay I think it went on to the olympia amusement arcade which was once a station in lee on Solent
Wonderful video, thanks for sharing.
Well at last I've seen a bit of Gosport 😂..! I love Bec's funny faces .. she's so funny ... these visits wouldn't be the same without her ... The extensive research you put into these highly absorbing series never ceases to amaze me ... well done 👍
Thank you Janina, very kind.
@@pwhitewick Thank YOU 😃 !
Fab to see the whole line. We used to live very close to the station at Brockhurst. The line was made into a cycle way quite nearby. We didn't realise there were so many stations. There were lots of fragments of rails left in the early 300's when we were looking for a house. You could see them beside houses in the nearby estates. We were hoping they would put light rail back in , but instead chose a bus. It would be ridiculouly popular now with the trouble getting on and off Gosport at commuter times.
Haven’t read so not sure if it has been said, I’m sure I read the Gosport station was bombed in the war and the roof caved in.
Born in Fareham, grew up in Hill Head, never thought I would see the area immortalised in you-tube!
The Objection mentioned was to do with the LSWR's previous name the London & Southampton Railway the People of Portsmouth objected because the Company had the Name "Southampton" in it's name hence why 1 of the main reasons the L&SR changed its to the "The London & South Western Railway" to alleviate the issue and because the issue was no longer there the LSWR could then build their line to Portsmouth! That's what I researched years ago
Amazing one.
Great stuff as usual. I'm sure you know this but the London & Southampton railway originally terminated at Nine Elms/New convent garden not Waterloo. The line is pretty straight til there but bends around quite a bit to get to Waterloo as land had been sold off and they therefore could not continue straight on to the Waterloo site. (At Waterloo there is a very interesting war memorial at the main entrance/exit to all the railway workers who died in the great war. I bet most travellers never even notice it but I think it's quite poignant).
National Libraries of Scotland have a side by side viewer for the old maps Gosport showing His Majesty's Landing Place
Depends which year, some show it, some hide it!
Ahhh man!!!! Imagine my surprise when I see you have a new video, and you're stood in front of .... FAREHAM station!!! That's my station! I feel like we've been visited by celebrities! If only I'd known! Hahaha.. I knew about the Gosport line, of course...and the Lee-on-Solent branch... But I had no idea there was also a Stokes Bay branch too... I now feel like I have to go walk that line like you have too...
Its a really nice walk along the sea front. I doubt that there is much to see railway wise though.
Gosport Station is one of the most disused stations that I know of. Fantastic.
Enjoyed this one. Gospprt.
Another Great video. Hope one day you can come further north and cover some of the Yorkshire Wolds disused lines and many of the lines created or influenced by the later disgraced George Hudson. Such as the Yorkshire Wolds Railway or the Hull to Barnsley railway or even the Hull to York via Beverly Railway one of the first lines to a have planed modernisation plan even to the point of new equipment arriving only to be shortly removed and closed by the beaching report. A line he never visited even though it was profitable and well used. A line they one day hope to re-open. Hope you never stop making these videos and the enthusiasm you show in making them.
There was a proposal to reinstate the junction at Fareham and have trains use the old line when I lived there 20 years ago. It was scaled down to a bus route due to budget constraints sadly.
Would have loved a bit more history about Gosport's history as military town - had navy, army, fleet air arm, submarines training schools, military hospital, military prison firing ranges, nearly every man in uniform and many of those that didn't worked for then - which would have perhaps helped to shed more light on piecemeal retention of old railways tracks that began to disappear with ending of compulsory military service, and which locals to used love to walk along as a forever in season wild 'green' routes to school and shops etc (when primroses bluebells daffodils and blackberries were prized but not as a rarerit). Like everywherelse, developers soon gobbled up the freed land without a thought for retaining even a glimmer of its wider "social' value.
I remember a proposal for a new Portsmouth tram system with tunnel to Gosport be built by dropping segments into the water then connecting them up and pumping the water out. I wonder what happened to that, but don't try walking THAT route!!!
Lovely to see my home town....there were other lines in Gosport that ran to Priddys Hard RN Depot and Frater/Bedenham Depots
Station house on military Road is my parents house 👀👀
Excellent
When you couldn't walk down the bus way didn't you catch the bus, been cool doing a video from the top deck
Was tempting actually, but we thought the walk would do us good!
Well, that stimulated me to get down and explore the line all the way from Fort Brockhurst to Gosport, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I was particularly pleased to see that the splendid 14-arch Italianate colonnade (see 7:08) has survived and is incorporated into the converted buildings. It's on the south side, opposite side to the cycleway, so it's easy to miss if you don't know it's there, but it's fully accessible. The end building is visible on the left at 7:12, but to see the colonnade you have to go back outside the station and along the road for 20 metres (past an elegant VR pillar box). Not to be missed! There's also an information board on the station's history at the roadside.
Wish i'd known you two were in the area, that's where i work, i'd have got you both a coffee... you missed a trick on the brockhurst road station house, opposite, on the cycle lane, is a still existing signalling pole with the insulators still intact :)
Many years ago I used to sit in the parking bays overlooking Stokes Bay after dropping prisoners off at Haslar when it was a detention centre, we were always amazed at the number of foxes roaming around picking up food off the beach. (summertime)
I never knew that! Another brilliant bit of discovery and history! 👍
Nice one Paul
Welcome to the bottom of Hampshire (the urban side of Southampton Water) the video is great as always! Looks like you had a good day for it!
Thanks for yet another lovely excursion!
Our pleasure!
Loved the vid. I spent nine very happy years at Gosport in the late 70s early 80s
you walked right pass my house in alverstoke lol
Half of the Gosport line was kept in working order until at least the 1980s, maybe the 1990s for the Royal Naval Armaments Depot (basically, most of Gosport seemed to be MoD establishments at one point).
I remember seeing a train going along it at about 2am, and all the wagons had a radioactive symbol on the side.
1991, the MoD still operates the facility but not the branch line…funny, it might have been usable with a new station if bus rapid transit hadn’t won out
The old Bedenham Bomber:-)
Has all the track been lifted?
@@s125ish yes, but the right of way is intact even if overgrown or blacktopped due to use for buses
@@s125ish no link to Fareham now but if you look on Google Maps places like Bedenham Pier still have some rails
I cycled this route recently. It was an odd experience to cycle along a road completely clear of traffic apart from the occasional bus. It’s a lovely area though lots of things to see.
You missed the only part of the line with track which can be walked along (it's not long) and can be accessed from Weevil Lane, just a few minutes walk from the old Gosport station.
You should have headed over to Royal Clarence Yard - there's some track and a tunnel still in situ off Weevil Lane.
I'm also fairly certain the London and Southampton Railway (later LSWR) were blocked from building to Portsmouth so as not to breach the Hilsea Lines (fortifications that protected Portsea Island from the north), though there was, from what I remember, a degree of unhappiness that Portsmouth was planned to receive a mere branch line from Southampton (on the then named London and Southampton Railway) and not a terminus from London in it's own right. The LB&SCR rectified this when they did build a tunnel through the East Centre Curtain Wall of the Hilsea Lines a few years later, and the London and Southampton Railway ultimately changed their name to the L&SWR to placate Portsmouth a little too
We really missed a trick there!