Trolleybus ride into heart of a throbbing Portsmouth

Above is a view it would be impossible to photograph today because of the demolition and seismic redevelopment of the centre of Portsmouth that occurred in the early 1970s.
By The Newsroom
Published 13th Oct 2016, 06:00 BST
Updated 25th Oct 2016, 18:30 BST
ALL ABOARD A photo that would be impossible to take today  the Guildhall from Greetham Street. Picture: Barry CoxALL ABOARD A photo that would be impossible to take today  the Guildhall from Greetham Street. Picture: Barry Cox
ALL ABOARD A photo that would be impossible to take today  the Guildhall from Greetham Street. Picture: Barry Cox

Trolley and motor buses fill the scene which shows the Guildhall from Greetham Street in 1963.

My colleague Bob Hind remembers, as a boy, travelling upstairs at the front of a trolleybus and passing along Greetham Street to the junction of Guildhall Square alongside the Sussex Hotel on the left.

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He says: ‘At once this amazing vista opened up in front of the bus with the wonderful square packed with people, cars and buses. Great memories.’

COMMERCIAL With Littlewoods, Woolworths and C&A all doing good trade, this is Commercial Road, Portsmouth, looking south in 1961. You can see dozens of cycles propped against the kerb in days when they were unlikely to be stolen.COMMERCIAL With Littlewoods, Woolworths and C&A all doing good trade, this is Commercial Road, Portsmouth, looking south in 1961. You can see dozens of cycles propped against the kerb in days when they were unlikely to be stolen.
COMMERCIAL With Littlewoods, Woolworths and C&A all doing good trade, this is Commercial Road, Portsmouth, looking south in 1961. You can see dozens of cycles propped against the kerb in days when they were unlikely to be stolen.

To the left of the photograph were, believe it or not, butchers’ wholesalers Swift & Co, Towers & Co, Armour & Co and the Chichester Meat Company all vying for trade.

It seems as if we are talking about the 19th century, but it was all there until the late 1960s.