Portslade

Portslade is the name of an area of the city of Brighton and Hove, England. Portslade Village, the original settlement a mile inland to the north, was built up in the 16th century. The arrival of the railway from Brighton in 1840 encouraged rapid development of the coastal area and in 1896 the southern part, known as Copperas Gap, was granted urban district status and renamed Portslade-by-Sea, making it distinct from Portslade Village. After World War II the district of Mile Oak was added. Today Portslade is bisected from east to west by the old A27 road (now the A270) between Brighton and Worthing, each part having a distinct character.

Portslade Village, to the north, nestles in a valley of the South Downs and still retains its rural character with flint buildings, a village green and the small parish church of St Nicolas, which is the second-oldest church in the city, dating from approximately 1150.

Another notable building in the village is Portslade Manor, one of the few surviving ruins of a Norman manor. It was built in the 12th century and is now a Scheduled Ancient Monument. Foredown Tower houses a camera obscura, one of only two in the south of England. It is open to the public.

Portslade-by-Sea, to the south, straddles the small but busy seaport harbour basin of Shoreham harbour and is the industrial centre of Brighton and Hove; the Monarch's Way long-distance footpath follows the seafront west towards Shoreham. Terraced housing dating back to the 19th century is interspaced with parks and allotments. Boundary Road is the main shopping area as well as being the location of Portslade railway station, with direct trains to London Victoria with a journey time of about an hour. Boundary Road is, as the name suggests, located at the boundary between Portslade and neighbouring Hove; the street is divided down the middle and while the Hove side is called Boundary Road, the Portslade side is called Station Road and Carlton Terrace. Portslade Station is in fact in Hove.

Portslade is the boundary town with West Sussex and the dividing line is a footpath extending from the seafront up on to the South Downs. The adjacent areas of West Sussex are Southwick and Fishersgate with Fishersgate occurring south of the railway line. Fishersgate has its own railway station and like the " Portslade " Station actually occurs at the boundary.