THE DEVELOPMENT OF PORTSMOUTH IN THE LATE 19C

The middle of the 19th century saw a rapid growth in the population of Portsmouth Borough, due largely to the increase in activity in the Dockyard. According to the 1861 census there were 94,329 people in the Borough, which at the time occupied all of Portsea Island up to North End. By 1881 the number had risen to 127,989.
 
It was during these decades that housing began to spread over the farmlands that we now know as Fratton, Kingston and Southsea, but the land to the east remained undeveloped. As the housing expanded so did a new social conscience which would no longer tolerate the inhuman conditions experienced by the sick, the poor and those in gaol. This did not mean however that solutions to the problems would be accommodated in the newly gentrified areas, so in 1845 the Workhouse was established well away from town in Milton (St. Mary's Road), closely followed in 1856 by the Cemetery and in 1879 by both Kingston Prison and the Asylum.
 
The streets in the town were still lit by gaslight but sewers had recently been built. A telephone exchange was opened in 1885, a few years after St. James` was built. The old canal, which ran parallel and to the south of Locksway Road up to the White House and then along Goldsmith Avenue, had long been closed but had not yet been filled in.
 

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