Portsea Island "northern end" of Kingston. Old Portsmouth lies on the south west corner of Portsea Island and forms the eastern side of the narrow entrance to Portsmouth Harbour at the ports mouth. Old Portsmouth contains most of the traditional High Street and heritage of the original old town of Portsmouth, including Portsmouth Point (also known as "Spice Island") and the Camber Dock. Portsea is a parish and narrower, informal area of the city of Portsmouth, occupying much of its south-west. Engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel was born in Britain Street in 1806; writer Charles Dickens was born nearby at Landport on 7
Fortifications of Portsmouth I's reign saw yet more work on the bastions and the first bridge at the Landport gate which was constructed in about 3 years starting 1586. During this time there also appears to have seen a fair amount of repair work. Sometime around 1600 a new gate known as point gate replaced the North Gate in controlling access to Portsmouth point. At the time of the Civil War, the fortifications mounted around 100 guns and when properly manned were considered by some to be able to withstand a siege of 40,000 men. In one of the first actions of the