Portsmouth enrols 23,000 students and is ranked among the world's best modern universities. Portsmouth is also the birthplace of author Charles Dickens and engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel. The Romans built Portus Adurni, a fort, at nearby Portchester in the late third century. The city's Old English name "Portesmuða" is derived from "port", meaning a haven, and "muða", the mouth of a large river or estuary. The "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" has a warrior called Port and his two sons killing a noble Briton in Portsmouth in 501. Winston Churchill, in his "A History of the English-Speaking Peoples", says that Port was a pirate
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