The private island Spitbank Fort in the Solent off Portsmouth

Saturday, 15 November 2014 - 03:36 am (CET/MEZ) Berlin | Author/Destination:
Category/Kategorie: General, House of the Month, Hotels
Reading Time:  3 minutes

Spitbank Fort 2012 © Sian Abrahams/cc-by-sa-3.0

Spitbank Fort 2012 © Sian Abrahams/cc-by-sa-3.0

Spitbank Fort or Spitsand Fort or Spit Sand Fort or simply Spit Fort is a sea fort built as a result of the 1859 Royal Commission. The fort is one of four located in the Solent, near Portsmouth in England.

Work on constructing the fort started in 1861 but was soon halted for a review into the best way to defend the Solent and approaches to Portsmouth Harbour. Work restarted in 1867 and was completed in 1878.

Spitbank Fort is smaller than the two main Solent forts, Horse Sand Fort and No Man’s Land Fort. Its main purpose was as a further line of defence for ships that made it past the two main forts. It is 162 feet in diameter across at its base, with 1 floor and a basement and armour plating only on the seaward side.

No Man's Land Fort on the left, Spitbank Fort in front of Portsmouth Harbour entrance, Horse Sand Fort to the right © spitbankfort.com View from Spitband Fort on Portsmouth © geograph.org.uk - Graham Horn/cc-by-sa-2.0 View from Portsmouth on Spitbank Fort © geograph.org.uk - Chris Downer © spitbankfort.com Spitbank Fort in the middle of the Solent © geograph.org.uk - Martyn Pattison/cc-by-sa-2.0 Spitbank Fort 2012 © Sian Abrahams/cc-by-sa-3.0
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No Man's Land Fort on the left, Spitbank Fort in front of Portsmouth Harbour entrance, Horse Sand Fort to the right © spitbankfort.com
The fort was declared surplus to requirements in 1962 and disposed of by the Ministry of Defence in 1982. The fort is now privately owned and once opened as a museum. It has 50 rooms, its own dance hall, restaurant, and was once available for private functions with limited accommodation available.

Beginning June 4, 2002 the Fort was used as a location for Banged Up With Beadle. For six weeks British TV personality Jeremy Beadle was locked in its dungeons. Cameras followed him as he coped with survival, plus learning skills with a different member of the public each week. These skills were put to the test as a live insert each Saturday evening into Ant and Dec’s Takeaway. The fort was also featured on an episode of Most Haunted in series 8.

In 2009 it was put on sale for GB£800,000 but was sold before auction, reportedly for more than £1m. Spitbank Fort is currently owned by Clarenco LLP (owners of Horse Sand Fort and No Man’s Land Fort), and has been renovated for use as a small luxury spa hotel and retreat with 8 bedroom suites.

Read more on SolentForts.com – Spitbank Fort and Wikipedia Spitbank Fort. Learn more about the use of photos. To inform you about latest news most of the city, town or tourism websites offer a newsletter service and/or operate Facebook pages/Twitter accounts. In addition more and more destinations, tourist organizations and cultural institutions offer Apps for your Smart Phone or Tablet, to provide you with a mobile tourist guide (Smart Traveler App by U.S. Department of State - Weather report by weather.com - Global Passport Power Rank - Travel Risk Map - Democracy Index - GDP according to IMF, UN, and World Bank - Global Competitiveness Report - Corruption Perceptions Index - Press Freedom Index - World Justice Project - Rule of Law Index - UN Human Development Index - Global Peace Index - Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index). If you have a suggestion, critique, review or comment to this blog entry, we are looking forward to receive your e-mail at comment@wingsch.net. Please name the headline of the blog post to which your e-mail refers to in the subject line.




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