Today’s photographs come from the marvellous collection of a former Portsmouth headteacher.
Helen Mabel Smith (1906-1990) was a one-time head of Paulsgrove East Infants School.

The impressive diving platform stands imperiously over a deserted Hilsea Lido in 1960
She taught in the city for 40 years and had previously been headmistress at Albert Road Junior School, Cosham.
Her photos serve as a reminder that many of those workaday snaps we have all taken and which live on in dusty albums, can one day serve as useful social history documents.

Canoe Lake, Southsea, 1960

Portsmouth Cathedral and power station 1958
