Published On: Wed, Jul 16th, 2025
Warsaw News | 3,249 views

The UK’s future seaside megacity as 2 ‘close to merging’ | UK | News


The UK is a small island nation with many large cities, some of which seem to be gradually getting closer to one another, as the urbanisation of their surrounding areas continues. Two on the south coast of England could possibly comprise one metropolis in the future, it has been suggested. Portsmouth and Southampton are very proud and historic places with their own identities, including famous football clubs, whose fans do not like each other much. The Titanic set off from the latter on her ill-fated voyage, and the former is home to the Royal Navy, with Lord Nelson’s HMS Victory proudly docked there.

But some have suggested that the two city’s futures are looking intertwined, and they are “already in the process of becoming one conurbation straddling the M27”. Indeed, what looks like a chain of towns and villages – such as Portchester, Fareham, Titchfield, Warsash and Sarisbury – currently make it seem as though, to the naive eye, they are already linked. One person wrote on Reddit that the places between Southampton and Portsmouth, also including Eastleigh and Havant, are “growing into the few gaps of green space between them”.

They added: “Give it a few decades and I can see everywhere bounded between the two national parks (New Forest and South Downs) being one urban/suburban mass.

“From Winchester down to Totton and east to at least Havant/Emsworth.

“Hell, give it a century and the villages between Havant and Chichester could infill and you could potentially have this conurbation running as far as Brighton.”

But another account suggested that this would represent “urban sprawl” rather than one massive city.

They said: “The 19 miles between the two is pretty urbanised but it’s been piecemeal, unplanned development as and when land becomes available.”

The person is sure this will continue, but thinks “the opportunity for a megacity was the failed Solent City scheme of the mid 1960s”.

The proposal included joining the urban areas of Southampton and Portsmouth into a single, large municipality, potentially with a population as large as 750,000.

A directional grid system would have been deployed, aiming for a dispersed, landscaped city with a new regional center near Eastleigh, which could have potentially eclipsed Southampton.

The Reddit user said: “This would have probably been better in retrospect as it proposed a completely new centre between the two, and a coherent road building programme, but I’d be surprised if such a plan will ever re-emerge.

“I find that cultural loyalties to Portsmouth or Southampton are still clearly demarcated with the dividing line being slightly west of Titchfield. This may weaken if more people move to the area who have no cultural affinity either way.”

Although, another account suggested that the idea is not so far fetched.

It wrote: “I wouldn’t be too sure. I commuted from Havant and Portsmouth to mid Sussex for ten years before moving to Sussex permanently.

“In that time alone I saw the housing developments from the outskirts of Havant/Warblington gradually encroaching east. To be sure there’s a lot of agricultural land straddling the A27 but how long will it last?”



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