Portsmouth anniversary in 2016. In literature, Portsmouth is the chief location for Jonathan Meades' 1993 novel "Pompey", in which it is inhabited largely by incestuous and necrophiliac criminals. Since the release of his novel, Meades has presented a TV programme documenting Victorian architecture in Portsmouth Dockyard. In Jane Austen's novel "Mansfield Park", Portsmouth is the hometown of the main character Fanny Price, and is the setting of most of the closing chapters of the novel. In Charles Dickens' novel "The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby", main protagonists Nicholas and Smike make their way to Portsmouth and get involved in a
Royal Portsmouth Hospital Royal Portsmouth Hospital The Royal Portsmouth Hospital in Portsmouth, England was sited in Commercial Road close to the shopping centre and near to the Portsmouth Dockyard. The facility had its origins as the Portsmouth and Portsea General Dispensary which was founded at St George's Square in Portsmouth in 1821. It moved to Commercial Road and opened there as the Royal Portsmouth, Portsea and Gosport Hospital in 1849. It became the Royal Portsmouth Hospital in 1866. In the late 19th century it contained a 'Lock Ward' for the treatment of prostitutes under the regulations governed by the Contagious Diseases Acts 1863