 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||
|
Gosport.info Query |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
 |
|
|
Spinnaker ‘So touching in its majesty’ George Fratton Only 170 metres high. Doesn’t sound very much, does it? Metrically illiterate acrophobiacs could be conned into a trip to the Spinnaker Tower with a view to coming to terms with their fear. (Just don’t show them the photographs and have them turn up blindfolded.) If one of the party does multiply 170 by 39.36 inches, divides the product by 12 on the way and shocks his fellow travellers on the coach, the courier’s powers of persuasion will be to no avail, but the tills in the cafeteria at the foot of Portsmouth’s latest landmark will be red hot. As you pay for a ticket, you cannot help notice the flash of a Polaroid between the reception and the lift. Punters stand in front of a green-painted wall and are photographed. Your un-photogenic writer was waylaid by an attractive young woman with a camera. She captured his vapidly grinning image on film. No reason was given for this exercise. More informative was the young man in the lift, which whisked us up to the first level in comfort. No stomachs were left at sea level. We have a choice: first level, second level (whence a lift will take you back down) and the crow’s nest. Nothing rivals the experience of seeing familiar surroundings from a totally difference perspective. As for visitors from foreign parts, they might be impressed by the views, but they are unlikely to be moved as much as the natives. Looking at Manhattan from the Empire State Building is breathtaking. Ooh, look! There’s Central Park...and Staten Island. But once you seen one skyscraper, you have seen them all, haven’t you? Were it not for the dust and the smog, views of Cairo from a tower on an island in the Nile might make an indelible impression on one’s memory. However, no matter how long one is absent from old stamping grounds, in the recesses of one’s mind, there is always a bundle of cherished experiences and memories of the home turf. As a ‘local’, looking down on Gosport, Portsmouth Dockyard, the harbour railway station and the matchbox-sized car ferry berthing the camber docks makes me wax lyrical. ‘Earth has not anything to show more fair...’ Ha! Anyone can compose a sonnet from Westminster Bridge – a mere fifteen feet above the Thames. William Wordsworth was born 200 years too soon. The Spinnaker Tower offers an unforgettable experience from 300-odd feet above sea level. It is like re-reading a favourite novel from another perspective. The railway line that curves past St George’s Square and crosses Burnaby Road and Anglesey Road has been the prelude to countless journeys in and out of Hampshire and England. Remember the queues along the Dockyard wall during Navy Days when August bank holidays were sunnier? When my grandfather lived on the twelfth floor of Harbour Towers on the Gosport side of the harbour, he used binoculars to read the time off the Guildhall clock. Now you would need powerful optical equipment to discern his former dwelling. In fact, the area west of Trinity Green could serve as a giant board with the smaller blocks of flats as chess pieces. The wake of the catamaran bound for Ryde leaves a thin, S-shaped wake. Ooh, look! Hayling Island! Just like on a map. Surely, you can enjoy panoramic views of this most broken up part of England’s south coast from Portsdown Hill. Indeed you can, and distance lends enchantment. Even so, that charm is all the more powerful when, having risen above the familiar skyline, you can look down on your world from the Spinnaker Tower and pick out the streets you have trodden and driven along and the waterways you have travelled. To borrow from Wordsworth again: “Dull would he be of soul who could pass by/A sight so touching in its majesty.” But there was one fly in the ointment, albeit a tiny one. I thought the crow’s nest referred to the thin pointy bit atop the viewing platforms. Unfortunately, that treat was not included in the price of a ticket. Last week, two men braved gusts of up to 45 mph and climbed the ‘needle’. They have photographs to prove it. Strictly for the birds. Far from ‘dull of soul’ and invigorated by the overview of Gosport, my Gosport, I took the lift and, as I was sauntering out of the lift, I was accosted by an attractive young woman who ushered me to a counter. A few pounds changed hands and after a touch of cut’n’paste, viola! have a photograph to prove it. Which reminds me: I forgot to take a camera. Or would I have some nice snaps of reflections in the windows? |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Admin & Research Financial, Admin Assist adminandresearch.co.uk |
||||||
|
Gosport Office Support Flexible Admin Support www.gosportofficesupport.co.uk |
||||||
|
|
||||||