Portsmouth City Council is continuing its commitment to preserving and improving the city’s historic cemeteries, with a programme of investment designed to upgrade facilities, protect heritage buildings and improve public spaces.
Across Milton, Kingston and Highland Road cemeteries, a range of improvements are in the process of being carried out, funded by extra income generated by the cemeteries team. This sits alongside the council’s wider work to reinvest income efficiently and protect important public spaces for the future.
At Milton Cemetery, the council is redecorating the public toilets and upgrading them with new hand dryers and improved internal fixtures, to make the facilities more reliable and comfortable for visitors.
Other improvements across all cemeteries include safer and more accessible paths, the installation of new benches offering more places to pause and reflect, and the replacement of ageing litter bins.
Further investment is being made to protect and restore the city’s historic cemetery chapels, including essential improvements to the West Chapel at Kingston Cemetery to make the Grade II listed building watertight and prevent further deterioration.
This work supports the council’s wider commitment to preserving the city’s cemetery heritage, recognising their importance as places of remembrance, biodiversity, local history and community value. It also builds on the repair work carried out to the Dissenter’s Chapel at Highland Road Cemetery last year.
Cllr Steve Pitt, Leader of Portsmouth City Council, said:
“I’d like to thank the cemeteries team for their hard work, which has allowed this additional work to be carried out. These important green spaces offer the opportunity to reflect, to remember and provide habitats for the city’s wildlife.
“The city has a duty to its heritage, one that the council takes seriously. Our heritage strategy builds on recent projects including the redevelopment of the D‑Day Story, the arrival of LCT 7074, the renovation of Victoria Park and the Hotwalls Studios project. In addition, we have recently invested in renovation projects at the Kings Theatre and Hilsea Lido, along with repairs at Fort Widley.”
The council’s heritage strategy uses a scoring system to decide which heritage projects to support. This was used to determine where this investment into the city’s cemeteries was made. Each project is rated from 0 to 10 in three areas:
- Status (how officially recognised or protected the site is),
- Condition (how much repair or attention it needs), and
- Potential Impact (how much benefit the project could bring socially, economically, culturally, and environmentally).
The higher the total score, the higher the priority for support. This helps the council focus on projects that are both important and in need, and that can make a real difference to the community.