Portland's Castletown, the strip!

Portland's Castletown,  a few 100 yards along this road to the right side and situated at the very bottom of the island where the old naval base was, the single street, YES, ONE street here running through Castletown, this one street was known locally as "the strip"... sailors, a few pubs, a few shameless local loose ladies and you can guess the rest...


Once the navy left it was like a ghost town (as much as a single street can be!) and never really recovered to that level of activity again, although the port itself is used, not on the scale the navy used it of course.

Here is a wonderful photo taken in June 1944, the historic D-Day landings leaving from Portland....

Thanks to Alasman for this pic, shared on our Portland community.

The American troops boarding up, taking a look at the photo you can see the "strip" in the background, the single street that makes up Castletown, a hotel or two, a few homes and a few pubs with names like "The jolly sailor" and "The breakwater" with the one newspaper, general store further along the right, all set up the right place to take the sailors "eager to spend" money. :)

The navy leaving Portland did have a big effect and nowhere more so then Castletown.

Though it is getting more popular with the divers now, there is a diving shop here selling parts etc.