Spinnaker Tower (Portsmouth)

The Spinnaker Tower stands in Gunwharf Quays, at 170 metres tall, overlooking the dockyard, the city and the Isle of Wight. Having weighted many years for it to be completed, and seeing the delays and lift problems etc advertised quite broadly locally, I was anxious to get up there and see what it was really like! Was it worth it? The money, the weight, the problems it caused? Simply, yes. Maybe more so to me as a local, as I watched its construction progress and develop, and saw it change the landscape of the city I call home. The views over the boats in the dockyard are good, the city looks totally different from up there, and looking out over the ...  Read the complete review

I'll always remember the 12th October 2008 as a day of perfect weather - a cloudless blue sky, virtually no wind (southerly, 9mph), warm but not uncomfortably so. The suggestion to visit the Spinnaker Tower in Portsmouth seemed like a good one. I had been admiring its curvaceous shape for two years; it had been one of those instances where you often don't bother to visit the sights on your own doorstep, however appealing they may be. I don't want to go into all the ins and outs of its construction and vital statistics, which are available on the Spinnaker Tower's own website or on Wikipedia, and in other reviews on this site. You can't really miss the tower, ...  Read the complete review

Portsmouth is steeped in history, a military garrison town and is the home to the Royal Navy. It was intended to build the Spinnaker Tower for the Millennium celebrations but unfortunately was not completed in time. The plans for its development began in 1998 and it wasn’t until 18 October 2005 that the tower was finally completed and open to the public, but not without its many hitches and problems. Shaped like a giant sail, the tower is situated right in the heart of Gun Wharf Quays, Portsmouth. However the building is operated separately to Gunwharf Quays. Soaring 170 m (557 ft) above sea level, the tower has three levels, at 100, 105 and ...  Read the complete review