Sepia-tinted postcard showing a view of the South Parade Gardens, Southsea. Pencil: [personal message] [address in Reading supplied]. Southsea Common was laid out as a pleasure ground in the 1830s and 1840s, but extensively redeveloped as ornamental gardens in the 1920s. At the waterfront is Southsea Castle, a 16th-century artillery fort whose military use was discontinued in the mid-19th century and is now maintained as a tourist attraction; in its vicinity are the floral clock (dug up 2018, perhaps to be moved to a new site), and the rock garden (completed 1928). At the western end is a recreation area with bowling greens and tennis courts, linked to the east by an avenue called the Ladies' Mile. The South Parade Gardens, also known as the Italian Gardens, are two sunken panels fronting the town buildings