The history of Bournemouth and human settlement in the surrounding area goes back for thousands of years. Bournemouth is a coastal city on the island of
Great Britain
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It i ...
in
Dorset
Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset. Covering an area of , ...
,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
,
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
.
Before Inclosure
In 1800, the area was largely a remote and barren heathland, used only by
smugglers
Smuggling is the illegal transportation of objects, substances, information or people, such as out of a house or buildings, into a prison, or across an international border, in violation of applicable laws or other regulations.
There are various ...
– most notably Isaac Gulliver, now considered one of the founding fathers of Bournemouth – and revenue troops. 'Bourne Heath' was also known as Wallis Down in the north and Little Down in the south and east, and was part of the Great Heath of central Dorset which extended as far as Dorchester. To the east was
Christchurch
Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon Rive ...
, to the west was Poole and to the north east was the River Stour. There were villages at
Kinson
Kinson is a former village which has been absorbed by the town of Bournemouth in the county of Dorset in England. The area became part of Bournemouth on 1 April 1931. There were two electoral wards containing the name Kinson (North & South). The ...
Holdenhurst
Holdenhurst is a small isolated village situated in the green belt land of the north-east suburbs of Bournemouth, England. The village comprises fewer than 30 dwellings, two farms and the parish church. There are no shops and few local facilitie ...
(where the oldest dwelling is located) and Iford and a handful of buildings at
Pokesdown
Pokesdown is a suburb of Bournemouth in Dorset, England. It lies just east of Boscombe and west of Southbourne.
History
Evidence of human occupation in the area dates back to the Bronze Age. In 1909 when Lock's Field was being developed into wh ...
but the area between these communities was just a wilderness of pine trees, gorse, ferns and heather. The area now called central Bournemouth and the Pier Approach was 'Bourne Mouth' – the mouth of the Bourne Stream. No-one lived at Bourne Mouth and the only regular visitors were a few fishermen, turf cutters and gangs of smugglers who landed their cargoes of spirits, tea and tobacco on the deserted beach.
The eastern part of the heath was called the Liberty of West Stour (later, the
Liberty of Westover
Westover, Hampshire, is the ancient manor, now in Dorset, over which much of modern Bournemouth has developed. This area of land marked a historic boundary between Celtic and Saxon civilisations, which found expression as the county boundary bet ...
). It was divided into six tythings: '
Muscliff
Muscliff is a suburb of Bournemouth, Dorset.
Education
* Muscliff Primary School
Politics
Muscliff is part of the Muscliff and Strouden Park ward for elections to Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council which elect three councillors ...
Holdenhurst
Holdenhurst is a small isolated village situated in the green belt land of the north-east suburbs of Bournemouth, England. The village comprises fewer than 30 dwellings, two farms and the parish church. There are no shops and few local facilitie ...
Tuckton
Tuckton is a suburb of Bournemouth, situated on the River Stour in the eastern part of the borough. First recorded in 1271, this was a hamlet in the tithing of Tuckton and Wick until 1894, when the Local Government Act replaced all tithings in ...
&
Wick
Wick most often refers to:
* Capillary action ("wicking")
** Candle wick, the cord used in a candle or oil lamp
** Solder wick, a copper-braided wire used to desolder electronic contacts
Wick or WICK may also refer to:
Places and placename ...
'. These areas were
common land
Common land is land owned by a person or collectively by a number of persons, over which other persons have certain common rights, such as to allow their livestock to graze upon it, to collect wood, or to cut turf for fuel.
A person who has a ...
used by the inhabitants for livestock and by the poor for wood and turves.
The western and southern parts of the heath had once been a hunting estate 'Stourfield Chase' but by the late 18th century only a small part of this was maintained: the 'Decoy Pond Estate' (now known as 'Coy Pond' and being wholly in the neighbouring historic town of ''Poole'') comprising several fields around the Bourne Stream and including a cottage known as Decoy Pond House, which stood near where The Square is today.
Christchurch Inclosure Act 1802
Until 1802 the area was common land. The
Christchurch Inclosures Act 1802
The Christchurch Inclosure Act 1802 (42 Geo. III c. 43) was a local and personal Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for the dividing, allotting, and inclosing, certain commonable lands, and waste grounds within the parish of Christchur ...
and the Inclosure Commissioners' Award of 1805 transferred hundreds of acres into private ownership for the first time. To implement the Act, three Commissioners were appointed to divide up the land and allot it according to an individual's entitlement. They were also empowered to set out the roads and to sell plots of land to pay for their work in creating the award. The Commissioners were Richard Richardson of
Lincoln's Inn Fields
Lincoln's Inn Fields is the largest public square in London. It was laid out in the 1630s under the initiative of the speculative builder and contractor William Newton, "the first in a long series of entrepreneurs who took a hand in develo ...
, John Wickens of
Mapperton
Mapperton is a hamlet and civil parish in Dorset, England, south-east of Beaminster. Dorset County Council estimated that the population of the parish was 60 in 2013.
Parish
The parish of Mapperton is comparatively small at . The population h ...
and William Calpcott of
Holdenhurst
Holdenhurst is a small isolated village situated in the green belt land of the north-east suburbs of Bournemouth, England. The village comprises fewer than 30 dwellings, two farms and the parish church. There are no shops and few local facilitie ...
. Their clerk was William Baldwin of Ringwood.
Whilst the landed gentry were well represented with the Commissioners, the ordinary commoners who used and depended on the common land were concerned that they would lose all rights and would have nowhere for their animals and nowhere from which to collect wood and turves. However, they managed to persuade William West, the farmer at Muscliff Farm, to create a petition on their behalf and to present it to the Commissioners at a meeting in Ringwood. The result was that five areas of land, totalling , were set aside for the benefit of the occupiers of certain cottages "in lieu of their Rights or pretended Rights or customs in cutting Turves". These five areas are today known as ' Meyrick Park', ' Queen's Park', ' King's Park', ' Redhill Common' and 'Seafield Gardens' and are held in trust by the Five Parks Charity.
More than half the land sold was bought by two men, William Dean of Littledown House, who paid £639 for including the West Cliff and what is now King's Park. Sir
George Ivison Tapps
Sir George Ivison Tapps, 1st Baronet (5 January 1753 – 15 March 1835) was a British landowner and developer involved in the founding of Bournemouth.
Tapps inherited some of the estates, including Hinton Admiral, which formerly belonged to Si ...
, the
Lord of the Manor
Lord of the Manor is a title that, in Anglo-Saxon England, referred to the landholder of a rural estate. The lord enjoyed manorial rights (the rights to establish and occupy a residence, known as the manor house and demesne) as well as seig ...
of Christchurch, paid £1,050 for including the East Cliff and part of central Bournemouth. Sir George decided to plant thousands of pine trees on his land. It was the valuable medicinal properties of these trees, combined with the invigorating
sea air
Sea air has traditionally been thought to offer health benefits associated with its unique odor, which Victorians attributed to ozone. More recently, it has been determined that the chemical responsible for much of the odor in air along certain se ...
, that the town owes its origin.
In 1809, a new building appeared on the heath. Originally called the Tapps Arms after Sir George Tapps, and later the Tregonwell Arms. It stood where Post Office Road meets Old Christchurch Road. The pub was a favourite haunt of smugglers and later became Bournemouth's first post office. It was demolished in 1885.
When retired army officer
Lewis Tregonwell
Lewis Dymoke Grosvenor Tregonwell ( ; 1758–1832) was a captain in the Dorset Yeomanry and a historic figure in the early development of what is now Bournemouth.
Early life
Born 1758 in Anderson, Dorset, Tregonwell lived at Cranborne Lodge as ...
visited in 1810, he found only a bridge crossing a small stream at the head of an unspoilt valley (or 'chine') that led out into Poole Bay. An inn had recently been built near what is now The Square (the centre of Bournemouth), catering both for travellers and for the
smuggler
Smuggling is the illegal transportation of objects, substances, information or people, such as out of a house or buildings, into a prison, or across an international border, in violation of applicable laws or other regulations.
There are various ...
s who lurked in the area at night. Captain Tregonwell and his wife were so impressed by the area that they bought several acres and built a home, which is today part of the
Royal Exeter Hotel
The Royal Exeter Hotel is a Grade II listed building in Bournemouth, Dorset.
It stands opposite the Bournemouth International Centre.
History
A wing of the hotel was originally built as a house for Lewis Tregonwell, the founder of Bournemouth ...
. Tregonwell also planted pine trees, providing a sheltered walk to the beach. The town was to grow up around its scattered pines. Twenty-five years after the Tregonwells started work on their holiday mansion, Bournemouth was still only a small community with a scattering of houses and cottages.
Growth and development as a resort
In 1835 after the death of Sir George Ivison Tapps, his son Sir
George William Tapps-Gervis
Sir George William Tapps-Gervis, 2nd Baronet (24 May 1795 – 26 August 1842) was a British politician and land developer.
He was the only son of Sir George Tapps, 1st Baronet, of Hinton Admiral. After inheriting his father's estate in 1835, T ...
inherited his father's estate and started developing the seaside village into a resort similar to those that had already grown up along the south coast such as Weymouth and Brighton. Sir George employed Christchurch architect Benjamin Ferrey to plan the Gervis Estate. The Westover Villas were commenced in 1837. Ferrey included hotels in his design for Bournemouth. The first two hotels opened in 1838. One was the Bath Hotel, which went on to become the Royal Bath, although the original building was much smaller and less grand than the current facility. The other was the Belle Vue Boarding House, which stood where the Pavilion is now and later became the Belle Vue and Pier Hotel. The 1830s also saw the beginnings of
Bournemouth Gardens
Bournemouth Gardens is a neighborhood in the eastern area of Kingston, Jamaica, off of Kingston Harbour
Kingston Harbour in Jamaica is the seventh-largest natural harbour in the world. It is an almost landlocked area of water approximately l ...
.
Bournemouth also acquired its first church in 1838; before this people had to travel to Poole, Holdenhurst or Christchurch for Sunday worship. The first church was converted from a pair of semi-detached cottages which stood in The Square roughly where Debenhams is today. A pointed turret was added to the roof and fitted with a bell. During the week the building was used as a schoolroom.
In 1840, Bournemouth was officially referred to as a single word.
By 1841, there were still only a few hundred people living in Bournemouth but that was soon to change. In that year the seaside village had an important visitor, a physician called
Augustus Bozzi Granville
Augustus Bozzi Granville FRS (born Augusto Bozzi,The Square.
In 1856, Parliament approved the Bournemouth Improvement Act. Under the Act, a board of 13 Commissioners was established to organise all the things involved in the running of a small but growing town, such as paving, sewers, drainage, street lighting and street cleaning. Under the guidance of their surveyor,
Christopher Crabb Creeke
Christopher Crabb Creeke (11 March 1820 – 22 May 1886) was an architect and surveyor who was largely responsible for shaping the early development of Bournemouth.
Early life
Christopher Crabb Creeke was born on 11 March 1820, in Cambrid ...
, the Bournemouth Commissioners quickly launched a programme of work designed to improve the amenities of their town and make it more attractive to visitors. The Commissioners continued to govern the town until 1890 and were the forerunners of the
Bournemouth Borough Council
Bournemouth Borough Council was the local authority of Bournemouth in Dorset, England and ceased to exist on 1 April 2019. It was a unitary authority, although between 1974 and 1997 it was an administrative district council with Dorset. Previou ...
of today.
By the 1860s, the fields to the north were also laid out with walks by the owners of the Branksome Estate.
In the early 1870s all the fields were leased to the Bournemouth Commissioners, by the freeholders. These fields now form The Pleasure Gardens, which run through the centre of the town; although the name The Lower Pleasure Gardens is no longer officially applied to the area south of The Square. The area continued to progress with the development of the railways and the popular idea of visiting the seaside for holidays. Among the people who contributed to the development of Bournemouth at this time were Sir Percy Shelley (son of Percy Bysshe Shelley and
Mary Shelley
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (; ; 30 August 1797 – 1 February 1851) was an English novelist who wrote the Gothic novel '' Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' (1818), which is considered an early example of science fiction. She also ...
London and South Western Railway
The London and South Western Railway (LSWR, sometimes written L&SWR) was a railway company in England from 1838 to 1922. Originating as the London and Southampton Railway, its network extended to Dorchester and Weymouth, to Salisbury, Exeter ...
Company opened the first railway station in the town, following an extension of the Ringwood-Christchurch branch line. The station was built on the east side of Holdenhurst Road. The facilities offered by this station were very basic. On 18 June 1874 a second station opened in Queens Road, near Westbourne, at the end of an extension from Broadstone Junction. It was served initially only by the
Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway
The Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway, also known as the S&D, SDJR or S&DJR, was an English railway line connecting Bath (in north-east Somerset) and Bournemouth (now in south-east Dorset but then in Hampshire), with a branch from Evercreech ...
with trains connecting with the LSWR at Wimborne. On 20 July 1885 the present mainline station, designed by William Jacob, was opened on the west side of Holdenhurst Road. A link between the two stations, then known as Bournemouth West and Bournemouth East, was opened on 28 September 1886. Also in 1886 a ''Boscombe'' station was opened, the name was later changed to ''Pokesdown (Boscombe)''. In 1897 when a new
Boscombe
Boscombe is a suburb of Bournemouth, England. Historically in Hampshire, but today in Dorset, it is located to the east of Bournemouth town centre and west of Southbourne.
Originally a sparsely inhabited area of heathland, from around 1865 B ...
station (since closed) was opened on land situated between Ashley Road and Gloucester Road, the original was renamed
Pokesdown
Pokesdown is a suburb of Bournemouth in Dorset, England. It lies just east of Boscombe and west of Southbourne.
History
Evidence of human occupation in the area dates back to the Bronze Age. In 1909 when Lock's Field was being developed into wh ...
. The new Bournemouth East station was renamed Bournemouth Central on 1 May 1899. The building of railway links made Bournemouth much easier to get to and more people began to visit the town.
Tram
Between July 1902 and April 1936, Bournemouth Corporation operated a tramway between Bournemouth, Poole,
Christchurch
Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon Rive ...
and Winton. On 1 May 1908, a tram was derailed on Avenue Road (near to the present day library), killing 7 people and seriously injuring 2. The tramway system began its closure in 1929 when motorbuses of Hants and Dorset Motor Services were introduced as a tram replacement on the Lower Parkstone route. Bournemouth tram number 85 is preserved and on static display at the Museum of Electricity in
Christchurch
Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon Rive ...
.
Trolleybuses
The town also had an extensive network which opened on 13 May 1933 and closed on 20 April 1969.
The Pleasure Gardens and the sanatorium
The Pleasure Gardens are still an important landmark and the Central Gardens contain the town's impressive
war
War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...
memorial, guarded by two stone lions. The War Memorial was installed in 1921 when the Borough Council moved to the adjacent Mont Dore Hotel, which it still occupies. Various building works were carried out – such as the Saint Stephen's Road bridge – to stamp the municipal identity on this area of the town; the war memorial was one of them. It was designed by Bournemouth's deputy architect Albert Edward Shervey, who copied the two lions (one sleeping, the other awake and roaring) from Antonio Cavona's lions which guarded the tomb of
Pope Clement XIII
Pope Clement XIII ( la, Clemens XIII; it, Clemente XIII; 7 March 1693 – 2 February 1769), born Carlo della Torre di Rezzonico, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 6 July 1758 to his death in February 1769. ...
.
A large
sanatorium
A sanatorium (from Latin '' sānāre'' 'to heal, make healthy'), also sanitarium or sanitorium, are antiquated names for specialised hospitals, for the treatment of specific diseases, related ailments and convalescence. Sanatoriums are often ...
, overlooking the Central Gardens, treated patients with chest diseases. It has recently been re-developed as Brompton Court, a complex of retirement homes, preserving its remarkable chapel. Next to the sanatorium was built the magnificent Mont Dore Hotel, which is now
Bournemouth Town Hall
Bournemouth Town Hall (formerly known as Mont Dore Hotel) is a municipal facility in Bourne Road, Bournemouth, England. The town hall, which is the meeting place of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council, is a Grade II listed building. T ...
. In the hotel's heyday in the 1880s it was renowned nationally and internationally for its sumptuous luxury which included possessing one of the first telephones in England – the number was "3". The hotel was then used during the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
as a hospital to treat wounded soldiers. Although the number of invalids sent to the town dropped in the late 19th century, the resort was still booming and its population increasing rapidly. As Bournemouth's popularity increased, the town centre spawned theatres, concert halls, cafés, cinemas and more hotels.
History of Bournemouth Pier
The first pier in Bournemouth consisted of a short wooden
jetty
A jetty is a structure that projects from land out into water. A jetty may serve as a breakwater, as a walkway, or both; or, in pairs, as a means of constricting a channel. The term derives from the French word ', "thrown", signifying some ...
that was completed in 1856. This was replaced by a much longer wooden pier, designed by George Rennie, which opened on 17 September 1861. Due to an attack by
Teredo worm
''Teredo navalis'', commonly called the naval shipworm or turu, is a species of saltwater clam, a marine bivalve mollusc in the family ''Teredinidae''. This species is the type species of the genus '' Teredo''. Like other species in this family, ...
, the wooden piles were removed in favour of cast iron replacements in 1866, but even with this additional benefit just over a year later the pier was made unusable when the T-shaped landing stage was swept away in a
gale
A gale is a strong wind; the word is typically used as a descriptor in nautical contexts. The U.S. National Weather Service defines a gale as sustained surface winds moving at a speed of between 34 and 47 knots (, or ).steamboat traffic. The Rennie pier was subsequently demolished, and replaced in 1877 by a temporary structure. During the next three years a new pier, designed by
Eugenius Birch
Eugenius Birch (20 June 1818 – 8 January 1884) was a 19th-century English seaside architect, civil engineer and noted builder of promenade-piers.
Biography
Both Eugenius and his elder brother, John Brannis (born 1813), were born in Gloucester ...
, was completed.
At a cost of £2,600 the new Bournemouth Pier was opened by the
Lord Mayor of London
The Lord Mayor of London is the mayor of the City of London and the leader of the City of London Corporation. Within the City, the Lord Mayor is accorded precedence over all individuals except the sovereign and retains various traditional pow ...
on 11 August 1880. Consisting of an open promenade, it stretched to a length of 838 ft (255.4 m) and spanned some 35 ft (10.6 m) across the neck of the pier, extending to 110 ft (33.3 m) at the head. With the addition of a
bandstand
A bandstand (sometimes music kiosk) is a circular, semicircular or polygonal structure set in a park, garden, pier, or indoor space, designed to accommodate musical bands performing concerts. A simple construction, it both creates an orname ...
in 1885, military band concerts took place three times a day in summer and twice daily throughout the winter. Covered shelters were also provided at this time. Two extensions, in 1894 and 1909 respectively, took the pier's overall length to more than 1000 ft (304.8 m).
In common with virtually all other piers in the south and east of the country, Bournemouth Pier was substantially demolished by soldiers from the 18th Field Park Company of the Royal Engineers on 5 July 1940 as a precaution against German invasion. The pier was repaired and re-opened in August 1946. Refurbishment of the pier head was carried out in 1950, and ten years later a rebuild of the substructure was completed in concrete to take the weight of a new pier theatre. A structural survey of 1976 found major areas of corrosion, and in 1979 a £1.7m restoration programme was initiated. Having demolished the old shoreward end buildings, replacing them with a new two-storey octagonal leisure complex, and reconstructed the pier neck in concrete giving it the bridge-like appearance that it retains today, the work was completed in two years.
As of 2019, the council levies a charge to walk on the pier during peak season – early April until late October. The charge is £1.20 for adults and 80 pence for children.
World War Two
In
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, the town was hit by Air Raids. The Methodist Church on Exeter Road was destroyed and 77 people were killed.
The Winter Gardens
The town's first large entertainment venue was the original glass Winter Gardens, built in 1875 as the home of the town's municipal orchestra, (now the internationally renowned
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra (BSO) is an English orchestra, founded in 1893 and originally based in Bournemouth. With a remit to serve the South and South West of England, the BSO is administratively based in the adjacent town of Poole, s ...
).
Elgar
Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet, (; 2 June 1857 – 23 February 1934) was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestr ...
,
Sibelius
Jean Sibelius ( ; ; born Johan Julius Christian Sibelius; 8 December 186520 September 1957) was a Finnish composer of the late Romantic and early-modern periods. He is widely regarded as his country's greatest composer, and his music is often ...
and
Holst
Gustav Theodore Holst (born Gustavus Theodore von Holst; 21 September 1874 – 25 May 1934) was an English composer, arranger and teacher. Best known for his orchestral suite ''The Planets'', he composed many other works across a range ...
conducted there, but the acoustics were reputedly poor. In 1935, the original Winter Gardens was demolished. Its replacement, opened two years later, was intended as an indoor bowls centre, but by chance turned out to have superb acoustics, and after the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
it became the orchestra's new home. Before the opening of the BIC, the Winter Gardens welcomed just about every major entertainer of the day, including Maurice Chevalier,
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the most influential band of all time and were integral to the developmen ...
Queen
Queen or QUEEN may refer to:
Monarchy
* Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom
** List of queens regnant
* Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king
* Queen dowager, the widow of a king
* Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mother ...
and
Morecambe and Wise
Eric Morecambe (John Eric Bartholomew, 14 May 1926 – 28 May 1984) and Ernie Wise (Ernest Wiseman, 27 November 1925 – 21 March 1999), known as Morecambe and Wise (and sometimes as Eric and Ernie), were an English comic double act, working ...
. The building had been in decline since the late 1970s, and stood closed as the town council examined alternative uses. Then, despite a local vote and promises that it would be kept open, the hall was demolished in May 200
Trevor Howard
Trevor Wallace Howard-Smith (29 September 1913 – 7 January 1988) was an English stage, film, and television actor. After varied work in the theatre, he achieved star status with his role in the film ''Brief Encounter'' (1945), followed by ''T ...
, played the Pavilion Theatre in its heyday. The Pavilion faces the cinemas and upmarket shops of Westover Road, which prides itself on being the town's "Bond Street".
Westover Road's
Odeon cinema
Odeon, stylised as ODEON, is a cinema brand name operating in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Norway, which along with UCI Cinemas and Nordic Cinema Group is part of the Odeon Cinemas Group subsidiary of AMC Theatres. It uses the famous name ...
began life as the Regent in 1929 and retains many of the art deco features of the era. It was known as the Gaumont from 1949–86 and used to host live performances as well as films. Stars who appeared there included
Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917June 15, 1996) was an American jazz singer, sometimes referred to as the "First Lady of Song", "Queen of Jazz", and "Lady Ella". She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing, timing, in ...
,
Dusty Springfield
Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O'Brien (16 April 1939 – 2 March 1999), known professionally as Dusty Springfield, was an English singer. With her distinctive mezzo-soprano sound, she was a popular singer of blue-eyed soul, pop and dram ...
,
Victor Borge
Børge Rosenbaum (3 January 1909 – 23 December 2000), known professionally as Victor Borge ( ), was a Danish-American comedian, conductor, and pianist who achieved great popularity in radio and television in the North America and Europe. His ...
and, in 1963, the Beatles. The cinema now has six screens.
The nearby ABC cinema dates from 1937, when it contained one 2,600-seater auditorium. It has three auditoriums today, one of them boasting the areas largest cinema screen, and is capable of projecting epics in 70mm. Recent research has suggested that local residents, especially those of a younger demographic are keen to see a new live entertainment venue, easily accessible to the surrounding areas.
Recent history
The section of the coast both to the east and to the west of Bournemouth was very important during the Second World War. For example, Poole (
Poole Harbour
Poole Harbour is a large natural harbour in Dorset, southern England, with the town of Poole on its shores. The harbour is a drowned valley (ria) formed at the end of the last ice age and is the estuary of several rivers, the largest being t ...
) was the departure point for many ships participating in the D-Day landings, and
Studland Bay
Studland is a village and civil parish on the Isle of Purbeck in Dorset, England. The village is located about north of the town of Swanage, over a steep chalk ridge, and south of the South East Dorset conurbation at Sandbanks, from which it i ...
(just south of Poole) was the scene of practice live fire beach landings in preparation for the
Normandy Landings
The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allies of World War II, Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and ...
. Bournemouth itself was not a main target of bombing during the war but was on the route for other raids (e.g. on
Coventry
Coventry ( or ) is a city in the West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its city status until the Middle Ages. The city is governed b ...
) and German bombers were known to unload their spare bombs on the town; 219 civilians were killed by bombing during the war, 2,200 bombs dropped and almost 14,000 buildings damaged.
During World War II a Bournemouth man lost his life when his
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...
training airplane crashed in the United States. Local residents living near the site, in the State of Oklahoma, erected a monument in 2000 honouring the lives of all four RAF fliers who perished. The residents, who include Choctaw Indians and the
Choctaw Nation
The Choctaw Nation (Choctaw: ''Chahta Okla'') is a Native American territory covering about , occupying portions of southeastern Oklahoma in the United States. The Choctaw Nation is the third-largest federally recognized tribe in the United St ...
government, continue honouring the lives of all four on each anniversary of the crashes, which took place in February 1943.
After the Second World War, Bournemouth saw a period of decline as a seaside resort and a tourist destination, similar to other resorts across England. However the population of the town and its surrounding suburbs continued to grow at a considerable rate. In 1880, the town had a population of 17,000 people. By 1900 this had risen to 60,000, and by 1990 it had more than doubled again, reaching 150,000. In the latest census, the town had a population of 163,441. Since the 1990s there have been increasing calls for the town, together with Poole, to attain official city status (as per the example of
Brighton & Hove
Brighton and Hove () is a city and unitary authority in East Sussex, England. It consists primarily of the settlements of Brighton and Hove, alongside neighbouring villages.
Often referred to synonymously as Brighton, the City of Brighton and ...
) due to its sheer expanse and regional importance.
A local government reorganisation of county boundaries saw Bournemouth being moved from Hampshire to Dorset in 1974. In 1997, Bournemouth became a
unitary authority
A unitary authority is a local authority responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are usually performed by a higher level of sub-national government or the national governmen ...
.
On 15 September 1980 Bournemouth was one of the first areas outside a major city to get its own independent radio station.
2CR FM
CR or Cr may refer to:
In business
* Conversion rate, in marketing
* Credit Record, in accounting
* Crown Royal, a brand of Canadian whisky
Organizations Religious organizations
* Celtic reconstructionism, a form of Polytheism
* Congregation o ...
broadcast from near Bournemouth railway station; its name, meaning ''2 Counties' Radio'', is derived from the fact that its broadcast area includes parts of the counties of Dorset and Hampshire.
The town itself has continued to expand its business and tourist destination potential. The Bournemouth Big Wheel, for example, is situated at Pier Approach. Visitors and residents can enjoy stunning, panoramic views of Bournemouth beach, pier and town from the Big Wheel standing more than 100 feet tall.
In the 1990s a leisure complex including an IMAX cinema was constructed on the sea front by Bournemouth Pier. The building itself proved deeply unpopular amongst locals for its lack of aesthetic quality and for blocking the sea view. It featured on and came second in Demolition, a 2005
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...
programme asking the public to choose the building that they most wanted to demolis Questions were asked of the Council about the cost of demolition as a resul The building was demolished in 201 to create an outdoor public space.
Bournemouth was the first local council in the UK to install Closed-circuit television, CCTV cameras in public places, introducing them on the seafront in 1985. The original intention for using CCTV was to deter petty vandalism and crime; however, with local authorities increasingly reliant on parking penalties as a form of revenue, CCTV in Bournemouth is used to send fast response personnel in vans to ticket parking offenders within minutes of their violation.
Recently, a new £9.5 million Bournemouth Library was completed in 2003, winning the ''Prime Minister's Better Public Building Award'' in the
British Construction Industry Awards
The British Construction Industry Awards (BCI Awards or BCIA) were launched by '' New Civil Engineer'' magazine and Thomas Telford Ltd in 1998, at the time both owned by the Institution of Civil Engineers.
The awards seek to recognise outstanding ...
competition in recognition of its relatively low cost and high fit with client requirements.
In recent years the town has attracted a high number of jobs in financial services, with
JP Morgan Chase
JPMorgan Chase & Co. is an American multinational investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered in New York City and incorporated in Delaware. As of 2022, JPMorgan Chase is the largest bank in the United States, the w ...
,
Liverpool Victoria
Liverpool Victoria, trading since May 2007 as LV=, is one of the United Kingdom's largest insurance companies. It offers a range of insurance and retirement products.
History
The First Hundred Years
The first known meeting of the Society was ...
,
Abbey Life
Abbey Life Assurance Company Limited is a life assurance business based in London also with an office in Bournemouth. The company has been closed to new business in 2000.
Abbey Life was formerly a public company listed on the London Stock Exchan ...
and
Portman Building Society
The Portman Building Society was a mutual building society in the United Kingdom, providing mortgages and savings accounts to consumers and offering loans to commercial enterprises. Its head office was in Bournemouth and its administration cen ...
all opening major offices. JP Morgan Chase has a large campus style office on the outskirts of the town in the Littledown area supplemented by further offices in the town centre, and employs over 4,000 people in the town. The financial sector is in fact the biggest source of income for Bournemouth, although a general misbelief is that the tourism sector is responsible for this.
On 28 April 2015, AFC Bournemouth gained promotion to the
Premier League
The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...
br> marking their first time in the top tier of English football since their founding in 1899.
February 2017: A new complex called BH2 opened in the Bournemouth Town Centre, town centre, housing a state of the art multiplex cinema, with an I-sense experience and other cinemas with reclining seats. The complex also houses at least 12 restaurants and an underground car park for up to 250 cars. This replaces both the Odeon and ABC cinemas in Westover Road, which have now closed.
In 2019, the council was abolished as Bournemouth became part of the new
Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole
Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) is a Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Dorset, England. It was created on 1 April 2019 by the merger of the areas that wer ...
Conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...
Conor Burns
Conor Burns (born 24 September 1972) is a British politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bournemouth West since 2010. A member of the Conservative Party, he served as Minister of State for Trade Policy from 2019 to 202 ...
Tobias Ellwood
Tobias Martin Ellwood (born 12 August 1966) is a British Conservative Party politician and soldier who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bournemouth East since 2005. He has chaired the Defence Select Committee since 2020 and was a Go ...
(
Bournemouth East
Bournemouth East is a parliamentary constituency in Dorset represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2005 by Tobias Ellwood, a Conservative.
Constituency profile
The seat is mostly home to White British people and covers ...