# Portsdown Main, Portsmouth - Jan 09



## randomnut (Jan 18, 2009)

Met up with a few guys from here and other forums (sorry guys I missed your forum names, i'm sure you'll let us know though  ), and it was a really worthwhile explore. 

After a mile or so of trekking, we found ourselves right ontop of the site.

Portsdown Main is an impressive art deco style building which dominates the north Portsmouth skyline sitting atop Portsdown Hill. The building was designed back in the 30s but was never actually built until the 50s, eventually housing Admiralty Signals Establishment (ASE) Admiralty Surface Weapons Establishment (ASWE) Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA) and finally Defence Research Agency (DRA).

The Portsdown Main site was eventually wound down, and by 1st Jan 1997 was considered closed.































In it's heyday the staircase was always kept polished bright. It would have been quite a sight for any visitior. There were similar sweeping styles on the entrance to each floor





Notice the wood panneling - the only wood decked lav we found. Wonder whose it was....









Down in the basement

















Lecture theater:




Projection room:





Moving onwards to the staff canteen building, even these had grandiose staircases:

















The staff bar:




Marry Christmas, but looking at the decor, christmas 1975? 









Full set on Flickr

Many thanks to all involved, was a great explore. This has been on my list since the beginning of time so it feels great to have finally seen it.


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## CrysAk (Jan 18, 2009)

nice ^^

hope these wernt active lol  noticed them too


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## randomnut (Jan 18, 2009)

Yeah those were just speakers, most likely part of the PA system, or the emergency audio evacuation system they had.


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## CrysAk (Jan 18, 2009)

randomnut said:


> Yeah those were just speakers, most likely part of the PA system, or the emergency audio evacuation system they had.



thats what i thought that could of been, but figured it would of made more sense that they were motion detectors,


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## Earth Worm Jim (Jan 18, 2009)

Groovy. What a lovely functional art deco building.


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## littledasypus (Apr 13, 2009)

*Drove past this...*

Drove through Portsmouth the other day, saw this building on the hill and instantly recognised it from the pics here. Will put this one on my list. Good pics.


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## randomnut (Apr 13, 2009)

Cheers littledasypus. It's weird, it's one of those buildings most people always assume is live, weird to think just how long it's been abandoned


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## jonney (Apr 13, 2009)

Nice to see the building is in such good condition for the length of time it's been dissused. I'm surprised it hasn't been turned into appartments yet.


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## Badoosh (Apr 14, 2009)

Agree with others comments on how good nick the buildings in. Looks a pretty vast place to look around that's for sure. Also good to see it hasn't been demolished after being stood empty so long.


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