CJB Photography

With over 260 photographs in a large, 160 page, A4, landscape format, hardback, ‘coffee table’ book, I will guide you on an aerial tour of the island City of Portsmouth. Flying in a helicopter at an altitude of around 1,000ft, we will see many sites of local and historical interest but I am no historian so this is not, strictly, a history book. What this book is, however, is a visual history: a record to show how Portsmouth has changed, not just over the 30 years that I’ve been flying but combined with Jim’s, over more than 60 years – and the difference is fascinating. Jim Bramble was a school teacher of mine in the 1970s and flew, with a pilot friend, taking photographs from 1953 until 1973 when Portsmouth Airport closed. Using Jim’s photographs as a basis, I have carefully selected shots from my archive to guide you around the city to see how it used to be and how it is now. I’ve not consciously taken my photographs to match Jim’s earlier photos: in some cases mine are now 30 years old, long before I knew his photographs even existed. Although I do admit there are a few I’ve taken specifically to fill some ‘gaps’ in the tour. What I have done is try and identify the buildings and places in these photographs that have been lost to history, or in some cases preserved, so you can look into them further if you wish. I’m sure you will remember many more places in these photographs that may not appear in local history books. Portsmouth, being an island city, has had to make use of every square inch of land so some redevelopments have been quite ruthless, while in other areas land has been reclaimed from the sea to allow space for expansion. On this tour, we’ll start on the boundary with Portchester and move on to Paulsgrove, Northarbour, Hilsea, Highbury, Cosham, Drayton, Farlington, back across Hilsea and down to Copnor, Milton, Fratton, a brief look at Hayling Island then along the south coast to see Eastney, Southsea and Old Portsmouth. Here we’ll move into the city centre to look at Somerstown, Landport, Buckland and Portsea before going back to the water around Gunwharf Quays, Gosport, The Dockyard and Whale Island, Mile End, then finally Stamshaw, North End and Tipner.

Like the first book, this tour takes you around Portsmouth but includes shots of the greater Portsmouth area. On this tour, we start at Havant, then go to Langstone and Hayling Island, then across Langstone Harbour to travel the length of Portsea Island from Hilsea to Southsea. We then go up Portsmouth Harbour to see the dockyard and commercial port before crossing over Portsmouth Harbour to Hardway. Now we head south to Gosport and Haslar before turning west to Lee-on-the-Solent. At this point, we head inland to Titchfield, Fareham, and over to Portchester, then to Cosham before heading north to Widley and Waterlooville, as far as Horndean. This book is available in paperback in a slightly smaller format.

Aerial photo of Portsmouth as featured on the front cover of Portsmouth: an Aerial Tour Through Time. Taken on the 16th of August 2017, the day HMS Queen Elizabeth first came to the city and can be seen in HM Dockyard. Fantastically detailed high-resolution view of Portsmouth when viewed at 20″x 30″ large format, printed onto canvas for a stylish look. Hardboard backed premium canvas on a 1.2-inch thick frame.

The cover shot of my Book Portsmouth; an Aerial Tour Through Time has been very popular as a framed print or as a large canvas. This takes it to another level. The Portsmouth Aerial Jigsaw! The 1000 piece puzzle is 19″x 28″ when complete and you can see all of the Portsmouth landmarks. Can you find the pieces with The Spinnaker Tower, Fratton Park, South Parade Pier, Southsea Castle or your house? This shot was taken from nearly 3000ft up on the day the HMS Queen Elizabeth -R08 arrived in the city, so if you went to watch, you might be in the shot too! Now available in my online shop or see me at one of the craft fairs or markets coming up.