Portsmouth

A naval port city, Portsmouth in Hampshire offers an inspirational setting for meetings and events against a coastal backdrop with global connections.

The Great Waterfront City
Getting here
Expertise
Where to stay
Venues
Incentives
Dining & social
Hampshire Conference Bureau
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The Great Waterfront City

Portsmouth is the UK’s only island city and is twinned with Caen in France and Duisburg in Germany. It also has six sister cities in the U.S.
The Emirates Spinnaker Tower in the centre of Portsmouth is one of the UK’s tallest structures at 170-metres / 558 feet.
Unique venues also include No Man’s Fort and Spitbank Fort, two former military points offshore in The Solent, only accessible by boat.
Portsmouth Naval Base (HMNB) is considered home to the Royal Navy and features two-thirds of the UK’s surface fleet.
Portsmouth International Port is the UK’s second busiest port (after Dover), handling around three million passengers a year.

Getting here

The city of Portsmouth is served by two railway stations, regular ferry services and the M275 motorway.

BY FERRY

Portsmouth International Port offers ferry routes from France, Spain and the Channel Islands.

The port is served by Brittany Ferries for Caen, Cherbourg, Le Havre, Santander and St Malo; DFDS Seaways for Newhaven to Dieppe; and Condor Ferries for the Channel Islands.

The ferry between Portsmouth and France takes around five hours and 45 minutes. The ferry between Portsmouth and Spain takes around 23 hours 30 minutes. It is 10 hours, 20 minutes by ferry to the Channel Islands.

BY TRAIN

Portsmouth is served by two busy railway stations, one located in the city centre and the other at Portsmouth Harbour. Journey times to and from London are under two hours.

BY CAR

The driving distance between Portsmouth and London is 74 miles. It takes around 90 minutes to drive from the UK capital, via the A3 or M3 motorway. Southampton International Airport is 22 miles by road. It serves direct flights from France and the Netherlands.

Expertise

	Marine and Maritime Home to two-thirds of the Royal Navy's surface fleet, Portsmouth’s marine and maritime expertise is second to none. The University of Portsmouth’s Institute of Marine Sciences (IMS) has been at the forefront of marine biology for more than 70 years, whilst Portsmouth Naval Base (HMNB) has been an integral part of the city since 1194. HMNB is home to the new aircraft carrier, HMS Queen Elizabeth, the formidable Type 45 destroyers, Type 23 frigates and mine countermeasures and fishery protection squadrons. It will also be home to HMS Prince Of Wales, the sister ship of HMS Queen Elizabeth. At 65,000 tonnes they are the biggest ships ever built for the Royal Navy. Key employers in the city include BAE Systems, Babcock International, L3Harris, and QinetiQ.
	Digital and Creative There are many successful software and design companies in Portsmouth, including IBM, Transalis, and Bell Integration. Portsmouth is also home to an exciting creative quarter where the city’s historic fortifications have been transformed into 13 working studios known as the Hotwalls Studios. Located on the seafront between the Square and Round Towers, Hotwalls Studios bring artists and designer-makers together in a heritage location. The former cell block at the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard has also been converted into start-up office space for small creative businesses.

	Aerospace and Defence For over five decades, the Airbus Defence and Space site of Portsmouth has been the lynchpin for the development and construction of telecommunications, scientific, earth observation and meteorology satellite payloads, plus satellite telecommunications products. It employs 1,100 people and has some of the best equipped and state-of-the art development, assembly, test and production facilities in the space industry. Airbus’ world-class defence portfolio includes the Eurofighter Typhoon swing-role combat aircraft; the A400M, C295 and CN235 air-lifters; the A330 Multi-Role Tanker Transport; along with robust, dependable unmanned aerial systems (UAS). Other key sector employers include H+S Aviation, Portsmouth Aviation and GKN Aerospace, all based at the city’s Airport Industrial Estate.