Portsmouth Point is Walton's first published orchestral work, written in 1925. At this time he had recently gone down from Oxford University, having failed to complete his degree, and was lodging with the Sitwell family in London. The Sitwells often took Walton with them on their many travels, and Portsmouth Point was written on a trip to Spain when he was 23.

The title comes from an engraving by the English artist Thomas Rowlandson, who was a caricaturist and satirist working about 1800 - 1820. His drawings are similar to those of Hogarth, with clarity and vigour of line, and many are biting and savage commentaries on political and social behaviour.

Despite its debt to early Stravinsky and jazz, this overture is immediately recognisable as by Walton - direct and energetic. It is dedicated to his friend the poet Siegfried Sassoon, and earned Walton the princely sum of £20 from Oxford University Press.