Inside HMS Alliance
A 1945 patrol submarine raised on stilts, walked through from torpedo room to engine room with a retired submariner as guide.
An eighty-six-metre submarine hoisted on stilts above dry land, and you walk through her belly behind a man who actually served in one. That is the whole point of the Royal Navy Submarine Museum; everything else is supporting cast. The boat is HMS Alliance, the last survivor of the patrol submarines Britain built as the Second World War ended, in service until 1973 and rescued from rust by a multi-million-pound restoration finished in 2014. The guides are often retired submariners, and their stories of sixty men sharing bunks in shifts and diesel fumes that never left the clothes are what make the tour, not the wall panels. The museum sits on the Gosport shore, across the harbour from Portsmouth, beside the old submarine base HMS Dolphin, and it is one of the Royal Navy Museums covered by the same Historic Dockyard ticket. Beyond Alliance there is Holland 1, the Royal Navy's first submarine from 1901, which sank under tow in 1913 and was raised in 1982; today she stands in a climate-controlled hall that keeps the corrosion at bay. There is also X24, the midget submarine that attacked Bergen harbour in Norway in 1944, a German Biber, an Italian 'human torpedo', medals including a Victoria Cross, and a control-room simulator that children enjoy more than their parents do. Getting there is part of the outing. A waterbus leaves the Historic Dockyard and crosses the harbour in about fifteen minutes, included in your ticket, but it runs Wednesday to Sunday in summer, weekends only in winter and daily in Hampshire school holidays, and the jetty steps mean it takes no buggies or wheelchairs. The alternative is the Gosport ferry from beside Portsmouth Harbour station, a four-minute crossing followed by a walk of about twenty minutes along the shore, or a drive to the museum car park. Allow half a day with the return, and do not cross the harbour without checking the calendar: outside Hampshire school holidays it opens Wednesday to Sunday only, with last entry at 16:00 and the doors shut at 16:30. A plain word for families: the Alliance tour is cramped and the ladders are steep, so there is no room for pushchairs or anyone with limited mobility, though the aft torpedo compartment alone is wheelchair-accessible and the main building has baby-changing toilets. Children of seven and up come out wide-eyed; younger ones lose interest fast. Without the annual Ultimate ticket that covers the whole Dockyard, the £36 single-attraction day ticket is steep for a two-hour visit, so fold it into a full naval day in Portsmouth rather than making it the destination.
A 1945 patrol submarine raised on stilts, walked through from torpedo room to engine room with a retired submariner as guide.
Britain's first submarine from 1901, lost under tow in 1913 and raised in 1982, now kept in a climate-controlled hall.
X24, which attacked Bergen in 1944, a German Biber and an Italian 'human torpedo' side by side in one hall.
Haslar Road, Gosport PO12 2AS
No, unless someone in the group is a submarine devotee. On a single day give HMS Victory and the Mary Rose in the Historic Dockyard itself the priority; the Gosport round trip eats half a day. With two days, or an annual Ultimate ticket, it is the best thing on the Gosport shore, and worth two hours plus the crossing.
The museum yes, the submarine no. The galleries are level, with baby-changing toilets, but the Alliance tour is steep steel ladders and passages a shoulder-width across; no pushchair goes in and a carried toddler is a struggle. Remember too that the waterbus takes only folding umbrella strollers, so with a big buggy use the Gosport ferry. Children of seven and older are the ideal audience.