Star and Crescent: News for and by the people of Portsmouth
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • POLITICS
    • WANTED: PORTSMOUTH SATIRISTS
  • SOCIAL ISSUES
  • CULTURE
    • REVIEWS
    • POETRY
      • POETRY SUBMISSIONS
    • FICTION
  • HISTORY
  • EVENTS
  • ABOUT US
    • Contributors
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Corrections and Complaints
    • Comments Policy
  • YOUNG PEOPLE’S VOICES
Latest
  • [ 4th July 2025 ] Island City Voices: Symbolic Phonecalls from Gaza Culture
  • [ 2nd July 2025 ] Protestors Picket Stephen Morgan’s Office After Vote to Proscribe Palestine Action as ‘Terrorists’ Politics
  • [ 27th June 2025 ] Welfare not Warfare: Protest Against Benefits Cuts in Portsmouth News
  • [ 23rd June 2025 ] Portsmouth UCU Branch Votes to Divest from Tesla, Starlink and X Politics
  • [ 18th June 2025 ] Portsmouth UCU branch votes for democratisation of University Politics
Homespinnaker tower

spinnaker tower

Poetry

Ode to Pompey: A Poem

28th October 2024

By Carole Carrell   Born in Pompey was I, with the Luftwaffe on its way, Elm Grove it was, number 27A. There came bomb sites on which to play, full of butterflies, nettles and dens, [… read more ]

Culture

Hidden Places Around Portsmouth: Sturnus Vulgaris

30th October 2020

Local resident and photographer John Callaway gives us a glimpse into Portsmouth’s hidden places with his stunning photography. This week, he heads down to The Hard and despite his best intentions, can’t help but find deeper meaning in [… read more ]

Culture

Documentary in Colour: From the Tricorn to the Spinnaker Tower

26th May 2020

Tom Benjamin remembers the Tricorn and Spinnaker Tower as they were in 2004, as he revisits a college photography project documenting change in the local area. In early 2004 I was studying photography at college [… read more ]

Fiction

Batman Saves Portsmouth from the Penguin

7th September 2018

S&C was recently contacted by a Portsmouth resident who claims to have captured a clear image of Batman flying over Southsea. A self-proclaimed ‘honorary’ boy scout, thirty-five-year-old Ivan Lavender-Braithwaite not only believes that the photo [… read more ]

Fiction

The Queen Victoria Statue Whisperer

10th August 2018

Alfred Drury’s impressive statue of Queen Victoria has graced Portsmouth Guildhall Square since 1903. But a student from the University of Portsmouth claims that the statue recently told him it is unhappy in its current [… read more ]

Culture

Risqué and Restful: The PHAS Annual Art Exhibition

7th August 2018

It’s late afternoon, summer light fills Portsmouth Cathedral, choral song sounds through the air and the Portsmouth and Hampshire Art Society’s (PHAS) annual exhibition is in full swing. Lucy Brown reports on this enchanting and [… read more ]

Events

Why I’m Jumping Off the Spinnaker Tower

11th July 2018

Portsmouth writer Anna Barzotti has only been up the Spinnaker Tower once before. On her second visit, she’s planning to jump off. In this exclusive for S&C, she explains why. I have been up the [… read more ]

Reviews

Portsmouth’s International Kite Festival: Ups And Downs

21st August 2017

S&C reviewer Emily Priest reports on the annual kite festival and finds this is one hobby that goes straight over her head.  This year was the 26th anniversary of Portsmouth’s International Kite festival which brings colour [… read more ]

Social Issues

It’s Easier To Prove Pompey’s Vices Than Her Virtues

18th November 2016

Francis Davis starts his walking travelogue of Portsmouth in a unique homage to George Orwell’s The Road to Wigan Pier with a thought-provoking wander through class, culture and the perils of the coastline. A fifth year once [… read more ]

Poetry

STAR POems: Ishiguro on the Spinnaker Tower

3rd June 2016

Looking up from the base of the tower I see a blue rectangle in the viewing deck one hundred metres above me. The swoop of the sails’ belly is white against the sky. Red lights [… read more ]

Posts pagination

1 2 »

Latest News

News

Welfare not Warfare: Protest Against Benefits Cuts in Portsmouth

27th June 2025

Portsmouth and District Unite Community is calling a protest against the savage cuts to Personal Independence (PIP) Universal Credit and Employment Support Allowance (ESA), reports trades unionist and activist Alan Burgess. The protest will take [… read more ]

News

What’s Missing from Local News in Portsmouth? And How do we Fix it?

11th June 2025

S&C Editor Dr Sarah Cheverton shares insights from her PhD research on the local news crisis in her second article for Indie News Week (9th-16th June 2025). Building on her first article about the local [… read more ]

Indie News Week 9th-16th June 2025. No news is bad news.
News

What’s Happened to Local News in the UK and What Does it Mean for Portsmouth?

8th June 2025

This week, to mark Indie News Week 2025, S&C Editor Dr Sarah Cheverton is drawing from her recent PhD research on the local news crisis to talk about the dramatic changes to local news over [… read more ]

Post shows logos for Indie News Week, reading: Indie News Week, 9th-16th June 2025; No news is bad news; and support local news.
News

Local News Crisis, Portsmouth: Sign the Petition to Help Regenerate Independent News

8th June 2025

This week – 9th-16th June – is Indie News Week, showcasing the importance of funding community-based journalism across the UK. The campaign’s organisers, the Public Interest News Foundation, has launched a petition calling on the government to support independent local news publishers and even up the playing field between independent local publishers and the large news corporations that own most of the UK’s local news titles.  [… read more ]

News

Record Breaking £11 Billion is Still Not Enough to End the Special Educational Needs Crisis

17th May 2025

Parents and teachers left ‘overwhelmed’ by the failing SEN system in England’s schools, reports University of Portsmouth journalism student Ivana Domozetska. ‘I will do everything and anything for my daughter to get the support she [… read more ]

Show Your Love!

Follow on Facebook

Stay connected

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram

About Star & Crescent

We are an independent news website written for and by the people of Portsmouth. We believe in journalism to create social change. Read more about us here.
Image show logo for Indie News Week, reading "Help Indie News Thrive: No news is bad news.
Pages
  • About Us
  • Contributors
  • Join the S&C Contributors
  • Be a Co-Editor
  • Wanted: Portsmouth Satirists
  • Poetry Submissions
  • Comments Policy
  • Donate
Categories
  • News
  • Politics
  • Social Issues
  • Editorials
  • Events
  • Culture
  • Reviews
  • Fiction
  • Poetry
  • Memoir
  • History
Popular on Star & Crescent
  • The Rubbish State of Recycling in Portsmouth
    22nd February 2018
  • Is Austerity Bad For Portsmouth’s Mental Health?
    13th February 2017
  • Dear Anti-Abortion Protesters: An Open Letter to 40 Days For Life
    5th October 2017
  • What Can Portsmouth Learn from the Grenfell Tower Fire?
    18th July 2017
  • 138 Affordable Homes Are Missing From Portsmouth and Here’s Why
    15th November 2017
Find out how to report corrections and make a complaint here.
Star & Crescent is regulated by IMPRESS: The Independent Monitor for the Press CIC.

Copyright © 2017 - 2020 | Star & Crescent | All Rights Reserved