We were kindly invited to visit Portsmouth Historic Dockyard and the National Museum of the Navy in return for a full blog review. All views are, as always my own, and in this case are shown clearly through the delight and fascination of a toddler!
Sailing is in our blood and teaching our son about Great Britain’s fabulous maritime history is important to us. Taking B to Portsmouth for a day in the dockyard seeing treasure after British naval treasure was such a good time, for all of us!
Portsmouth Historic Dockyard is a treasure trove of different museums and exhibits. There is so much to see, believe me – there was so much to see that the batteries on our phones almost gave up given how many photos and videos we shot. My husband has suggested he’s going to go back by himself to please his inner naval history geek! When I was first looking at going I had a dig around on the website and there’s a multitude of places to visit both ‘on site’ in Portsmouth, as well as over the water in Gosport. We’ve been to some spectacular evening parties at some of the venues before, but it’s been many years (my school days) since I’ve visited as a museum guest. And wow, now we’ve been – what a treat to visit!
Having an inquisitive three year old with a serious interest in pirates was perfect justification for a family day out for Daddy’s birthday and we all had an excellent day out!
As you walk into the dockyard you are wowed by the sheer size of Warrior, it’s impossible to not go there first! Our three year old went running off up the gang way to check for pirates. Thankfully no pirates, but plenty of sailors in period costume to tell us about the ship, and reassure young children there are definitely no pirates! Warrior is a war ship from 1863, and she’s made of metal (not wood as I’d assumed). She’s the biggest and fastest of the warships and you can’t fail to be impressed. There are four floors of fascination to enjoy, and plenty of headroom! You start up on deck and can enjoy views over to the Spinnaker Tower. It’s then a case of following ladders and stair cases down and up through the different decks, all the way down to the bilges and back. There’s plenty of things to do as well – my husband was shown how the cannon worked, my son made a good start learning semaphore and they both had a cutlass fight!
Mr P has long been interested in Nelson, so going to see Victory was a bit of a treat for him. Although we were waylaid en route – by aircraft carriers! The Prince of Wales and the Queen Elizabeth were both docked just along from Victory, it’s quite the sight and juxtaposition! Victory is far smaller than Warrior, but there is no less to see. As she’s smaller, she has lower ceilings and less ventilation – so she’s currently seen round a one way system and you will be asked to wear a mask. We spent most of our time up on deck enjoying the views, and for our three year old ringing the bell, the views of the air craft carriers were pretty spectacular. There’s lots of ladders between decks on this ship too and it’s suitably different to Warrior that it’s possible to do both. One thing that impressed us most though was the walk way under the Victory. She’s in dry dock and there are steps down to the base of the dock so you can have a good look at the hull!
We had a lot of fun in this boat shed, there was so much to do – not least it started with the letter ‘B’ which was very important! The boathouse is where smaller wooden boats are built or restored, and up on the mezzanine you have a great view of this. Up here are lots of smaller boats with Naval significance – we found a red one which was immediately the 3 year olds favourite. But better still we found activities! There were pulley systems attached to seats and we compared how the effort changed as the purchase was altered. There’s a rowing boat and we had a good row, our son really didn’t want to get off the boat once he’d learnt how to do it! We also found a little rowing boat racing machine as well. I didn’t expect to find so much of interest in the boatshed, we almost walked past it! But we spent ages in there! There’s also a little ‘count the boats’ trail for kids to do.
Last time I saw the Mary Rose I was at school, and I’m pretty sure it was in a shed! It is now in a state of the art building in a temperature controlled chamber. When we were in Sweden we were overawed by the Vasa, it’s excellent to see one of our great ships restored and displayed in such a fabulous way. The target audience of this museum isn’t toddlers, as it is very dark. But we wanted to see the Mary Rose and we managed it, just a little faster than we might have chosen. The entrance is impressive – before you get near to the Mary Rose you are taken to sea in a immersive animation. It’s incredibly realistic and impressive (lots to explain to a 3 year old). When you see the ship you can’t fail to be impressed – it looks great in the dim light, and as you see it over 3 floors there’s plenty of time to take it all in. The top floor is ‘in’ the chamber through an air-lock (very crystal maze) and commands the best views. There are many displays all around the museum of other artefacts, but we didn’t get a chance to look at those!
There’s so much more to see…
We only scratched the surface, this really is the kind of place where an annual pass is essential. My husband actually said when we get one he’ll take a day off work and go back, by himself (he reads all the signs)!
- National Museum of the Royal Navy – multimedia and modern we had a quick peep and confirmed it was fascinating. This is the type of museum to introduce a child to history as it’s there to be learnt about, enjoyably.
- Action Stations I am desperate to return to, for me as much as the 3 year old. I always loved the interactive nature of the science museum and this is that, but without a trip to London!
- HMS M.33 – if it wasn’t for the presence of two aircraft carries we would have probably had time to have a quick look at this survivor of Gallipoli. I’d love to see inside a ship like this, years ago we were lucky enough to attend an invent on HMS Illustrious but we weren’t able to slowly mooch and take it what it must be like to be at sea in a war ship.
- Submarine Museum – a short hop over the water to Gosport. It’s fab here, we’ve been before and you can even go on a submarine. I love that the different museum venues have joined up so that you really can have a days adventure in and around Portsmouth, on and off the water.
- Explosion – this is also in Gosport and I’ve driven past so many times and wondered what’s inside! It’s another interactive museum, with ordnance and powder being a key part of the story told.
Food and shopping
There are 3 places to eat on site, although Boathouse 4 (go there for the sea views) was shut for dining on our visit. We ate in Boathouse 7 and enjoyed fish, battered sausage and chips – the perfect meal for the type of day out, a naughty treat and good quality. There’s also a café in the Mary Rose museum. There are gift shops dotted around all over the place and we obviously visited them all – and came away with a Pirate book and a red bus. Our 3 year old was quite taken with a £300 replica of the Mary Rose… Which we didn’t get. There wasn’t lots of choice of things to buy for the pre-schooler, but thankfully he found a bus so that the £300 boat was forgotten!
Location and price
We drove over to Portsmouth and parked in the car park about 500 yards away from the museum. This was simplest for us. However there are lots of options. Had it not been a Sunday with rail-replacement buses, then we would have got the train. Portsmouth Harbour station is a 3 minute walk from the museum and 3 minutes to the other side of the station is Gunwharf Quays for shopping. You could alternatively drive and park in Gosport and start your day out at one of the sites across the water. If you are visiting I would recommend the annual membership, as you will want to return – adults are £39 and children are £29.
I’m not the type to get overly excited about museums, I hate reading long signs with ‘interesting’ facts. But I absolutely loved our visit to Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. There’s no boring signs. They’ve brought history to life through interpreters, activities, video and some wholly impressive things to look at. If you want to introduce children to learning about our maritime history in a fun way, and have an excellent family day out at the same time, then this is definitely somewhere to do it!
