| Ahoy me boys! OutUK's manly mariner Adrian Gillan drifts into port for a bit of a naval binge along the coast of the Solent in Portsmouth and Southampton. It gave Nelson his Victory and has given sailors a warm heartfelt passage ever since. We're talking of Portsmouth or Pompey to the locals. No holds barred, or all at sea? |
Romantic Hayling Island just east of the city. |
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If you're warming up for your big club night out, totter along to the
trendy Hampshire Boulevard where all the bright young things hang out ship-shape
along it's lengthy bar or in the spacious summer decks outside to the aft.
And if the old horn pipe's still strangely aloft, there's a range of options for the old shivered timbers. For a hot steamy time try Tropics Sauna, though its steamy cabins are perversely only open afternoons and evenings, not nights or Sundays - Monday afternoon is reportedly busiest for old sea hands. If it's late night fayre you're after, outdoor cruising's rife back down at South Parade around Henry VIII's little old castle by the sea, though beware - a giant straight club backs onto the area and groups of drunken het hunks have been known to cause trouble. Far safer is the gay nudist beach by day, right beneath the MoD's rotating radar, a half hour ramble along the coast - follow the coastal road eastward ho until it bends left, then take the single track on the first right, following it between the caravan site and the MoD HQ. You'll soon reach a beach with a sign plainly foretelling of nudity. Waft yet further east along the beach and cast your towel - the MoD radar won't be the only thing picking up naked men in the area! | |
PORTSMOUTH PRIDE Portsmouth Pride is a community-run local charity that organises one of the biggest completely free and unfenced Pride events in the country. They have grown their Pride celebrations into being one of the best loved in the UK. | 
UK Pride for 2025 proudly comes to Portsmouth Photo: Tim Sheerman-Chase CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons |
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Each June Portsmouth Pride hosts a free-of-charge event with entertainment on their main stage and a full range of spectacular celebrations
of diversity and inclusion on Southsea Common. There's usually loads of stands and stalls, food outlets and family entertainments.
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ALONG THE COASTJust a half hour's journey west along the coast from Portsmouth, two ships once set sail from the fair city of Southampton. One was The Mayflower which helped colonise America with Puritanical whites; and the other, a few hundred years later, was the Titanic which sank en route to the same place, so giving us the world's largest metaphor and 3 hours of Di Caprio eyeing up Winslett. | 
Eastern Docks in Southampton. |
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If you drift down Bernard Street, along the curve
that is Oxford Street, passing The Grapes pub where many of the crew of the Titanic
downed their last pints, you'll find the London Hotel pub (not a hotel) on the corner. It's
billed as "Southampton's friendliest gay venue" and we'd certainly vouch for that - the
staff bend over backwards to welcome all wayfarers and lost souls, to set you on your
way with a smile - nightly evening cabaret and karaoke.
Yet further north, there's the purple-coated gay multiplex that is The Edge, Loft & Box. The Edge is a large bar-cum-club with polls to dance around - all you'd expect plus more. The Loft upstairs offers a range of snacks and light pub grub. The Box next door is open at weekends, pumping out hard dance music. There's plenty of outdoor cruising action on Southampton Common - especially in the woods near the County Cricket Ground on the south side, with easy parking and even easier lads who seemingly get younger as the night goes on. Complaints from the public over careless disposal of condoms have reputedly prompted limited police action, so the north side of the common may be more expedient - up at the top of Hill Lane where the toilet is now boarded up but there is a huge amount of activity in the woods over quite a large area. | |
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Portsmouth and Southampton are approximately 1½ hours away from London Waterloo by South West Trains. For information and booking www.southwesternrailway.com. Revised May 2025. |