Barracks and fortifications

Eastney Barracks were built as headquarters for the Royal Marine Artillery, who moved in during 1867.^[2] At the same time as the barracks, a pair of small artillery forts were built on the foreshore. Eastney Fort East is still extant (having remained in military use until 1989);^[3] Eastney Fort West has been converted into a walled garden.

The small hamlet of Eastney and surrounding farmland were developed and absorbed into Portsmouth in the period 1890–1905, with a network of streets built to house Royal Marines and their families that spread west from the barracks site. The streets were mostly named after famous military and naval engagements in which the Royal Marines had taken part.

Due to the heavy bombing suffered in The Portsmouth Blitz during the Second World War, many displaced people found refuge along the north shore of Eastney Lake, living in makeshift houseboats, converted railway carriages, and fisherman huts. Many of these homes lacked the basic amenities of electricity and plumbed water supplies. The community survived into the mid and late 1960s when the city council began to relocate families to its newly built housing estates in Leigh Park and Paulsgrove.^{[citation needed]}

Claims to fame

Eastney was the first venue for an underwater hockey game called Octopush, invented by Alan Blake of the newly formed Southsea Sub-Aqua Club.

Fraser Range, a (then) Royal Navy gunnery range establishment in Eastney, was used in October 1971 as a filming location for The Sea Devils, a serial of Doctor Who broadcast between 26 February and 1 April 1972.^[4] In late 2017, the Fraser Range site was purchased by National Regional Property Group, who have plans to preserve its naval heritage and to also develop the site for future residential use.^[5]