Calling health and safety officers '“ look away now!

If you want a job done, hire a large workforce, put up some flimsy-looking scaffolding and set them to work.

Especially if it’s South Parade Pier, Southsea...

This marvellous picture would bring tears to the eyes of any inspector from the Health and Safety Executive, especially if they were looking at those towards the top of the tower.

Mind you. if they fell they might have had a soft landing... if the tide was high.

Talking of workers, meet the staff of Timothy Whites’ store in Commercial Road, Portsmouth, in the 1922 picture below.

This branch, opposite the Air Balloon pub in old Commercial Road, is displaying a selection of both rubber and stoneware hot water bottles.

The Palmerston Road, Southsea, branch was one of the last survivors of the national chain, trading as a hardware store before closure in the 1980s.