Millennium Promenade - Bandstand Field, West Battery

The earth banks around Bandstand Field were gun batteries, defending the entrance to Portsmouth Harbour. They form a natural amphitheatre looking out to sea. The bandstand was designed and constructed by a local architect and designer blacksmith in 1998. It is a popular venue for events in the summer months.

Band concerts have been a popular form of entertainment since the 1800s. A bandstand from the 1920s now forms the centre piece of the nearby Southsea Skatepark, which opened in June 1978.

A dance floor originally surrounded this bandstand but after the war it was converted to a roller-skating rink.

1930 saw the completion of Children’s Corner, constructed to the west of Bandstand Field. Attractions included boating, paddling and a swimming pool, but most popular was undoubtedly the miniature steam railway.

Miniature engineering at its finest, the trains had immense ‘pulling power’ and adults and children alike were drawn to admire the mechanics of these Pygmy engines.

The paddling pool survived until the mid-1980s when the site was made over to an aquarium.

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