The oldest charitable foundation in England was created by Bishop Henry de Blois in 1136. The chapel in the shape of a Latin cross, built between 1160 and the end of the 13C, is a fine example of architecture during the transition from the romanesque to the gothic. In the Chapel of the Holy Virgin, there is a Dutch triptych from around 1530. The Fiars' Room has a musician's gallery and a fine wooden ceiling.

On 19 July 1545, the 4-masted Mary Rose (built 1509); vice flagship of the English fleet, keeled over and sank while preparing to meet a French attack. The wreck was found in the 1960s, preserved in the Solent silt; a film shows the salvage operation when the hull was raised in 1982. The exhibition of the many objects recovered - treasures and possessions of the crew - gives an insight into Tudor nautical life.

The strip of land to the south of Portsea island was rough marshland until the 19C when an elegant suburb of Portsmouth and a coastal resort began to grow and the Common became an amusement area.

This enormous Italianate villa with six-storey campanile and terraced gardens, completed in 1851, was the work of Thomas Cubitt and Prince Albert. Queen Victoria liked to spend her vacations here in the company of her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Nowadays visitors can take carriage rides round the grounds as far as the Swiss Cottage where the royal children learned to cook. A perfect insight into the daily life of the royal family.