The land for the estate was purchased by Portsmouth City council from the Fitzwygram family in 1944; work started on building in 1947 and the first residents moved in during 1949.

Barratt Homes is currently building on the former Procter & Gamble site in the centre of Leigh Park.

Leigh Park was one of the largest wholly council estates in Europe however following the ongoing right to buy many of the properties are privately owned.

In 2004, Leigh Park made the news when a gang stole more than £100,000 from the Nationwide Building Society[5] and a man sleeping on a bench was set on fire, in a separate incident.

[6] The suburb of Leigh Park comes under the remit of the local government district and borough of Havant and within the boundary of Hampshire County Council.

There was a Bowling alley beside park parade that was converted to a bingo hall and opened by Diana Dors in 1984.

The team's main claim to fame is reaching the FA Cup fourth round in the 2007-08 season when they twice took the lead against Liverpool at Anfield before finally losing 5-2.

Sombourne Drive is home to Leigh Park Bowls Club and Front Lawn Recreation Ground, the "Rec" had a £1.5M upgrade and is now known as Front Lawn Community Hub, this upgrade provided improved facilities including four changing rooms, toilets and community space.

- 3G floodlit football pitch inc. changing facilities - Multisport courts including: Tennis Courts x3 (x2 are floodlit), Basketball & Netball - Office building with x2 function rooms - Free parking Leigh Park boxing club is based at the community centre.