Bournemouth ( ) is a large
coastal resort town in the Borough of
Bournemouth
, England
.
The town
has a population of 163,444 according to the 2001 Census, making it the
largest settlement in Dorset
.
It is also
the largest settlement between Southampton
and Plymouth
.
With
Poole
and Christchurch
it forms the South East
Dorset conurbation
, which has a total population of approximately
400,000.
Founded in 1810 by
Lewis
Tregonwell, Bournemouth's growth accelerated with the arrival
of the railway, becoming a recognised town in 1870. Originally part
of
Hampshire, it joined Dorset with the
reorganisation of local
government in 1974.
Since 1997 the town has been administered by
a unitary authority, meaning that
it has autonomy from Dorset County Council
.
Bournemouth's location on the south coast of England has made it a
popular destination for tourists.
The town is a regional centre of business,
home of the Bournemouth International
Centre
and financial companies that include: Liverpool Victoria and Standard Life
Healthcare.
In a 2007 survey by
First Direct Bank,
Bournemouth was found to be the happiest place in Britain with 82%
of people questioned saying they were happy with their life,.
Geography
Bournemouth is located southwest of London at . A
roundabout at the end of the
Wessex Way road called "County Gates" (commonly
known as Frizzell roundabout after the insurance brokers based
there, now part of
Liverpool
Victoria Friendly Society) marks the historic border between
Hampshire and Dorset, and also the border between Bournemouth and
Poole.
The urban
geography of Bournemouth is complex: the town adjoins Poole in the
west and Christchurch in the east to form the South East
Dorset conurbation. The combined population is 383,713, and it
is a retail and commercial centre.
To the north west of Bournemouth is the
small town of Wimborne
and to the north east is the settlement of Ferndown
. Bournemouth International
Airport
lies to the north east, towards Hurn
. The
town is intersected by the
A338 dual
carriageway, known as the "Wessex Way".
Although Bournemouth is on the coast, the centre of the town lies
inland - the commercial and civil heart of the town being
The Square. From the Square the
Upper and Lower
Pleasure Gardens
descend to the seafront and the pier.
Areas within
Bournemouth include Bear
Cross
, Boscombe
, Kinson
, Pokesdown
and Westbourne
. Traditionally a large retirement town,
Bournemouth (mostly the Northbourne, Southbourne and Tuckton areas
of Bournemouth together with the Wallisdown, and Talbot
Village
areas of Poole) has seen massive growth in recent
years, especially through the growth of students attending Bournemouth
University
and the large number of language schools teaching
English as a foreign language.
Bournemouth is located directly to the east
of the Jurassic
Coast
, a section of beautiful and largely unspoilt
coastline recently designated a World Heritage Site. Apart from
the beauty of much of the coastline, the Jurassic Coast provides a
complete geological record of the
Jurassic period and a rich
fossil record.
Bournemouth sea front overlooks Poole Bay
and the Isle of Wight
. Bournemouth also has of sandy beaches that run from Hengistbury Head
in the east to Sandbanks
, in Poole, in the west.
Because of the coastal processes that operate in Poole Bay, the
area is often used for
surfing.
An artificial reef
(Europe's first) was expected to be installed at Boscombe, in Bournemouth, by October 2008, using large
sand-filled geotextile bags.
However, this deadline was not met, and the construction was
actually finished at the end of October 2009. The reef was
constructed as part of the larger Boscombe Spa Village development.
Bournemouth also has several
chines (e.g. Alum
Chine) that lead down to the beaches and form a very attractive
feature of the area. The beaches are subdivided by
groynes.
Climate
Due to its location on the south coast, Bournemouth has a
temperate climate with moderate variation in
annual and daily temperatures: from 1971 to 2000 the annual
mean temperature was . The warmest months are
July and August, which have an average temperature range of , while
the coolest months are January and February, which have an average
temperature range of . Average rainfall in Bournemouth is 592.6
millimetres (23.33
in), well below the national average of 1,126
millimetres.
Governance
Historically Bournemouth was part of Hampshire, with Poole just to
the west of the border.
At the time of the 1974 local government
re-organisation, it was considered desirable that the whole of
the Poole/Bournemouth urban area should be part of the same county.
Bournemouth therefore became part of the
non-metropolitan county of Dorset on
1 April 1974.
On 1 April 1997, Bournemouth became a unitary
authority, independent from Dorset County Council. For the purposes of
the Lieutenancy it remains part of
the
ceremonial county
of Dorset.
For local
elections the district is divided into 18 wards, and the Bournemouth
Borough Council
is elected every four years. The Council
elects the Mayor and Deputy Mayor annually. For 2009-2010, the
Mayor of Bournemouth is Mrs. Beryl Baxter.
History
The
Dorset and Hampshire region
surrounding Bournemouth has been the site of human settlement for
thousands of years. However, in 1800 the Bournemouth area
was largely a remote and barren
heathland.
No-one lived at the mouth of the
Bourne River and the only regular
visitors were a few fishermen, turf cutters and gangs of
smugglers until the 16th century. During the
Tudor period the area was used as a
hunting estate, 'Stourfield Chase', but by the late 18th century
only a few small parts of it were maintained, including several
fields around the Bourne Stream and a cottage known as Decoy Pond
House, which stood near where
The Square is today.
With the exception of the estate, until 1802 most of the
Bournemouth area was
common land. The
Christchurch Inclosures
Act 1802 and the Inclosure Commissioners' Award of 1805
transferred hundreds of acres into private ownership for the first
time. In 1809, the Tapps Arms
public
house appeared on the heath. A few years later, in 1812, the
first residents, retired army officer
Lewis Tregonwell and his wife, moved into
their new home built on land he had purchased from
Sir George Ivison Tapps. Tregonwell
began developing his land for holiday letting by building a series
of sea
villas. In association with Tapps, he
planted hundreds of
Pine trees, providing
a sheltered walk to the beach (later to become known as the
'Invalids walk'). The town would ultimately grow up around its
scattered pines. In 1832 when Tregonwell died, Bournemouth had
grown into small community with a scattering of houses, villas and
cottages.
In 1835, after the death of Sir George Ivison Tapps, his son Sir
George William
Tapps-Gervis inherited his father's estate.
Bournemouth started
to grow at a faster rate as George William 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
. In 1841, the town was visited by the
physician and writer
Augustus
Granville. Granville was the author of
The Spas of
England, which described health resorts around the country. As
a result of his visit, Dr Granville included a chapter on
Bournemouth in the second edition of his book. The publication of
the book, as well as the growth of visitors to the seaside seeking
the medicinal use of the seawater and the fresh air of the pines,
helped the town to grow and establish itself as an early tourist
destination.
The Bournemouth Pleasure Gardens, laid
out in the 1840s and 1860s.
The Victorian Folly was added later.
The Bournemouth War Memorial, built in
1921, located in the Bourne gardens.
In the 1840s the fields south of the road crossing (later
Bournemouth Square) were drained and laid out with shrubberies and
walks. Many of these paths including the 'Invalids walk' remain in
the town today; forming part of the Pleasure Gardens which extend
for several miles along the
Bourne stream. The Pleasure Gardens
were originally a series of garden walks created in the fields of
the owners of the
Branksome Estate in the
1860s. In the early 1870s all the fields were leased to the
Bournemouth Commissioners by the freeholders. Parliament approved
the Bournemouth Improvement Act in 1856. Under the Act, a board of
13 Commissioners was established to build and organise the
expanding infrastructure of the town, such as paving, sewers,
drainage, street lighting and street cleaning.
During the late 19th century the town continued to develop. The
Winter Gardens were finished in 1875 and the cast iron Bournemouth
pier was finished in 1880.
The arrival of the
railways allowed a massive growth of seaside and summer visits to
the town, especially by visitors from the Midlands
and London. In 1880 the town had a
population of 17,000 people but by 1900, when railway connections
were at their most developed to Bournemouth, the town's population
had risen to 60,000. It was also during this period that the town
became a favourite location for visiting artists and writers. The
town was improved greatly during this period through the efforts of
Sir
Merton Russell-Cotes, the
town's Mayor and a local
philanthropist. He helped establish the town's
first library and museum.
The Russell-Cotes Art Gallery &
Museum
was housed in his mansion and after his death it
was given to the town.
As Bournemouth's growth increased in the early 20th century, the
town centre spawned
theatres,
cafés, two
art deco
cinemas and more hotels. Other new
buildings included the War Memorial in 1921 and the Bournemouth
Pavilion, the towns concert hall and grand theatre finished in
1925. The town escaped great damage during the
Second World War but saw a period of
decline as a
seaside resort in the
post war era.
In 1985,
Bournemouth became the first town in the United Kingdom
to introduce and use CCTV cameras for public
street-based surveillance.
Literature references
Bournemouth appears as Sandbourne in
Thomas
Hardy's novels.
Tess
lived in Sandbourne with Alec d'Urberville, and the town also
features in
The Well-Beloved and
Jude the Obscure. It is also
mentioned in
So
Long, and Thanks for all the Fish, the fourth book of the
Hitch-Hiker's Guide to
the Galaxy trilogy. In
James
Herbert's horror novel
The
Fog, the entire population of Bournemouth runs into the
sea and drowns in a mass suicide. In
Andy
McDermott's thriller
The Secret of Excalibur, a car
chase through the town centre and beach front leads to the
destruction of the IMAX Cinema. It is also mentioned in
Roald Dahl's
The Witches as the setting for
the Hotel Magnificent.
J.R.R. Tolkien, the writer, spent 30 years taking
holidays in Bournemouth, staying in the same room at the Hotel
Miramar, with a second room to write in. He eventually retired to
the area in the 1960s with his wife Edith. Tolkien died in
September 1973 at his home in Bournemouth and was buried in
Oxfordshire.
Mary Shelley, the writer and novelist is buried
in St. Peter's Church, her son Sir Percy having settled at Boscombe Manor. Also buried at St Peter's is the heart of
Mary's husband, Percy Bysshe
Shelley, brought back from Italy, and her parents William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft, their remains
having been moved there from St Pancras Old Church
.
The town was especially rich in literary associations during the
late nineteenth century and earlier years of the twentieth century.
Oscar Wilde and
Paul Verlaine both taught at Bournemouth
preparatory school.
Robert Louis Stevenson wrote
The
Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and most of his
novel
Kidnapped from his
house "Skerryvore" on the west cliff. Count
Vladimir Chertkov established a colony of
Russian exiles in Iford Waterworks at Southbourne, and under the
'Free Age Press' imprint, published the first edition of several
works by
Tolstoy, however the author
himself never visited the town.
Culture and recreation
Bournemouth Pier including the Pier Theatre
Bournemouth is a tourist and regional centre for leisure,
entertainment, culture and recreation. The award winning Central
Gardens are a separate major
public
park, leading for several miles down the valley of the
River Bourne through the centre of the
town to the sea (reaching the sea at Bournemouth Pier) and include
the Pleasure Gardens and the area surrounding the Pavilion and the
now closed
IMAX Cinema. It has a thriving youth
culture, including a high university population and many language
school students. With the advent of the Boscombe Overstrand, the
seeds of a dynamic new business culture revolving around new media
and surfing have begun to emerge. Bournemouth also has a well
established gay scene comprising of a cluster of bars, restaurants,
The Bondi (the South's only exclusively GLBT Hotel) and nightclubs
all centred around the Triangle in the centre of the town.
Bournemouth is known for its popularity with pensioners and it has
many residential care homes.
The
Bournemouth International Centre
, is a popular venue for the conferences of the
major political parties. The centre hosted the
Labour Party conference in 2003 and 2007,
the
Conservative Party
conference in 2006, and the
Liberal
Democrat conference in 2008 and 2009 The BIC also hosts
theatrical productions and musical concerts.
The
Russell-Cotes Museum
is located just to the east of the Central Gardens
near the Pavilion Theatre
and next to the Royal Bath Hotel.
The
museum includes many 19th century paintings and the family
collections acquired when travelling especially in Japan
and
Russia
. It
was Russell Cotes who successfully campaigned to have a
promenade built; it runs continuously along the
Bournemouth and Poole shoreline.
The cover sleeve for "
All Around the World" by
Oasis was shot at Bournemouth, it
features 4 of the bandmates standing on the beach and looking up
towards to the sky, while the words "All Around The World" are
written in the sand.
Religion
Bournemouth contains places of worships for many denominations. The
town has several examples of
Victorian church architecture. These
include St Stephen's church, which was built for services under the
influence of the
Oxford Movement and
was finished in 1898. Also included is the Richmond Hill St
Andrew's Church, part of the
United Reformed Church. The Church
was built in 1865 and enlarged in 1891.
The town
is also the home of the Bournemouth Reform Synagogue
, formerly known as Bournemouth New
Synagogue. It is a
Reform
Jewish synagogue with over 700
members.
There is also the architecturally notable
Bournemouth Hebrew
Congregation
.
Image:Bournemouth Richmond Hill church.jpg|St Andrew's Richmond
Hill church, built in 1865.Image:Bournemouth St Stephen's
church.jpg|Bournemouth St Stephen's church, built in
1898.
Image:Bournemouth Synagogue.jpg|The Bournemouth
Hebrew Congregation.
Sport
The town has a professional
football club,
AFC Bournemouth, who play in
League Two, and
Bournemouth F.C. who play in the
Wessex League Premier Division.
AFC Bournemouth play
at the Fitness
First Stadium
(historically known as Dean Court) near Boscombe in Kings'
Park, east of the town centre. The
Westover and Bournemouth
Rowing Club is the town's
coastal rowing club situated on the
West Beach next to the Oceanarium. The oldest sporting club in
Bournemouth, it competes in regattas organised by the Hants and
Dorset Amateur Rowing Association that take place on the South
Coast of England between May and September.
Bournemouth Rugby Club, who compete
in the South West Division One, has its home at the Bournemouth
Sports Club located next to Bournemouth Airport. The
Bournemouth Cricket Club, also
situated next to the airport is one of Dorset's largest cricket
clubs. Their 1st team play in the Southern Premier League.
Recently, the Bournemouth International Centre has become a venue
for a round of the
Premier League
Darts Championship organised by the
Professional Darts
Corporation. It was rated as one of the favourites to become
the new host for the PDC World Championships as the last site,
Circus Tavern, could not hold the growing numbers of fans.
Bournemouth also has a thriving watersports community with its
beaches having great conditions for
Windsurfing and
Kitesurfing. On a windy day you can see many
kitesurfers and windsurfers out enjoying the waves all the way
along the beach from Hengistbury head to Sandbanks, and there are
quite a few local schools for the beginner to learn either sport.
There is a local Kiteboarding club, Bournemouth Boarding, which is
growing in popularity and is recognised by the BKSA.
There is a yearly
Festival, Animal Windfest, held at the end of the beach on Sandbanks in nearby Poole which
includes Kitesurfing and Windsurfing competitions along with zapcat
racing and other spectacles.
Shopping
The main shopping streets in the centre of town are just behind the
seafront on either side of the River Bourne; footpaths lead down to
the sea from The Square through the lower section of Bournemouth
Central Gardens.
The shopping streets are mostly pedestrianised and lined with a
wide range of boutiques, stores, jewellers and accessory shops.
There are stores (
Beales,
Dingles,
Debenhams,
Marks and Spencer,
BHS), modern shopping malls, Victorian arcades
(including the Victorian Arcade between Westover Road and Old
Christchurch Road), and a large selection of bars, clubs and cafés.
About a
mile to the west of the town centre, in the district of Westbourne, there is a selection of designer clothes and
interior design shops. About a mile to the east, in the district of
Boscombe, there is another major shopping area including
many antiques shops and a street market. North of the centre
there is an out-of-town shopping complex called Castlepoint
Shopping Centre
with supermarkets, DIY stores and larger versions
of high street shops. A new extension to Castlepoint, called
Castlemore, is set just South West of the main complex, which
features more large retail stores.
Other supermarkets are located in the
town centre (Asda and Co-op), Boscombe (Sainsbury's
) and between Westbourne and Upper Parkstone.
A large
Tesco Extra store is located at
the end of Castle Lane East, 2 miles east of Castlepoint.
Festivals
The town
was a major centre for the 1951 Festival of Britain with classical
concerts, opera, ballet and a visit from the Salzburg
Marionettes
; the two weeks in June also featured a national
brass band competition, sea cadet displays and different sporting
events.
Bournemouth is currently host to several annual festivals. The town
has had an annual Literary Festival since 2005. A
Gay Pride festival named
Bourne Free is held in the town each year during
the summer.
Since 2008 Bournemouth has held its own
air festival over four days in
August.
The 2009 show from 20th-23 August featured
displays from the Red
Arrows
as well as appearances from festival regulars such
as the Yakovlevs, Blades, Team Guinot
Wing-Walkers, Battle of Britain Memorial Flight including Lancaster, Hurricane, Spitfire and also the last flying
Vulcan. The festival also
saw appearances from modern aircraft such as the
Eurofighter Typhoon. The annual show is
due to return in 2010.
Education
The Bournemouth local education authority was first set up in 1903
and remained in existence until local government was
reorganised in 1974 when
Bournemouth lost its
County Borough
status and became part of the county of Dorset. Under the
later reforms of
1997, Bournemouth became a
unitary
authority and the Bournemouth local education authority was
re-established. Bournemouth is one of the minority of local
authorities in England still to maintain
selective education, with two
grammar schools (one for boys, one for girls)
and eight
secondary
modern/
comprehensive
schools. There are also a small number of independent schools in
the town, and a further education college.
Bournemouth
University is one of the largest universities in the south of
England. Known as Bournemouth Polytechnic between 1990 and
1992, it has its roots in the former Dorset Institute of Higher
Education. It is one of the better performing ex-polytechnics in
England.
The main campus is however in neighbouring
Poole. Affiliated to the university,
the Arts University
College at Bournemouth, also officially in Poole, specialises
in arts, design and media degree courses. Bournemouth is also a
major centre for the
teaching of English
and has numerous English language schools. Many thousands of
foreign students are attracted to the town every year, an important
form of
invisible trade.
Economy
Similarly to the rest of Dorset, Bournemouth's
economy is primarily in the
service sector, which employed 93% of the
workforce in 2007.
This is 10% higher than the average
employment in the service sector for Great Britain
and the South
West. The importance of the
manufacturing sector has declined, and
is predominantly based in neighbouring Poole, but still employs 3%
of the workforce.
Tourism is crucial to the
economy of Bournemouth, generating £440 million a year and
employing thousands of workers.
Business tourism alone contributed £127
million in 2007, through
delegates and
business visitors attending venues such as the
BIC and exhibitions in the town.
The following is a non-exhaustive list:
In April 2008, Bournemouth was announced to be the first '
Fibrecity' in the United Kingdom, with work
starting in September to bring 100Mbit
Broadband internet access into
homes and businesses within the town; running
fibre optic cables through the sewers reduces
the cost and disruption to road networks during cable laying. This
is part of the National Government's plans for everyone in the UK
to have access to 100Mbit Broadband by 2010. A trial to the
proposed 100Mbit is scheduled to begin at the end of March 2009,
where 30 homes initially gain free access to the internet. As the
trial continues, all businesses and homes within BH10 and BH11 are
entitled to sign up for free.
Transport
Road
Bournemouth road network is focused on a few main roads in and out
of the town centre.
The principal route into the town centre is
the A338 dual carriageway, which joins the
A31, itself the major trunk road in central
southern England, connecting to the M27
at Southampton. From here the M3
leads to London, and fast access may also be gained via the
A34 to the M4 north of Newbury, Berkshire
. National
Express coaches serve Bournemouth Travel Interchange &
Bournemouth University. There are frequent departures to London
Victoria Coach Station.
There are
also direct services to the West
Country, Sussex coast (Brighton and Eastbourne
), Bristol
, Birmingham
and the Midlands, the North West, and to Edinburgh
and Glasgow
. Flightlink serves Heathrow
Airport
with connections to Gatwick
and Stansted Airport
.
Local buses are provided mainly by two companies,
Wilts & Dorset, the former
National Bus Company subsidiary and now
owned by the
Go-Ahead group, and
Transdev Yellow Buses, the former
Bournemouth Council owned company and successors to Bournemouth
Corporation Transport, who began operating trams in 1902. In 1969
the town became one of the last in England to discontinue
trolley buses and replace them with diesel
buses.
Rail
Bournemouth is well served by the rail
network with two stations in the town, Bournemouth
railway station
and Pokesdown railway station
to the east. Parts of western
Bournemouth can also be reached from Branksome
station. Bournemouth station is located
some way from the town centre, due to the town's early leaders not
wishing to have a station within the town boundary, which extended
from the pier. However, the station is now well within the town, as
the town has grown significantly since its founding.
The station was
originally ¨Bournemouth East¨ with a second station, Bournemouth
West
, serving the west of the town in Queens
Road. South West
Trains operates a comprehensive service to London
Waterloo
with a journey time of 1 hour 50 minutes.
This line
also serves Southampton, Winchester
and Basingstoke
to the East, and Poole, Wareham
, Dorchester
and Weymouth to the west. CrossCountry trains serve destinations to the
north with direct trains to Reading
, Oxford
, Birmingham, Wolverhampton
and Manchester
. The Northwest, Yorkshire
, Newcastle
, Edinburgh and Glasgow can be reached by changing
at Reading or Birmingham. West
Coastway Line services are available by changing at Southampton
Central
. The Sussex Coastal towns of Chichester
, Worthing
, Hove
and
Brighton are served and trains continue to Gatwick Airport and
London Victoria.
Besides
its main line railway connections, Bournemouth is also the site of
three funicular railways, the East Cliff
Railway
, West Cliff Railway
and Fisherman's Walk Cliff
Railway
. These are all owned and operated by
Bournemouth Borough Council, and each serves to link the seaside
promenade with the cliff top, at various points along the sea
front.
Air
Bournemouth
Airport, in Hurn, just on the
periphery of Bournemouth is a short journey from the town centre
enabling passengers and freight to be flown directly to
destinations in the UK and Europe. Taxis going to
Bournemouth are available at the taxi stand on the airport and can
transport one to the town centre in about 20–30 minutes. An hourly
bus service also connects the airport with the town centre, travel
interchange and also operates along the major hotel routes.
Ryanair,
EasyJet,
Palmair and
Thomson Airways provide scheduled services
to destinations throughout Europe.
Bournemouth Eye
The Bournemouth Eye as seen from the
ground.
The Bournemouth Eye is a balloon attached to a
steel cable in Bournemouth.
Tourists are lifted to 500
feet and
can see as far as Fawley Power Station on a clear day. It's a
spherical helium-filled balloon with an enclosed gondola that
carries 25-30 passengers. Tethered by a high tensile steel cable,
the balloon lifts to a height of 500 feet while providing a
panoramic view of the English Channel and surrounding area (over 20
miles) from the highest public observation point in
Bournemouth.
The highest altitude noted is rather misleading. The Civil Aviation
Authority will only allow the top of the balloon to 500 ft,
but the balloon stands 110 feet tall, so at the most the passengers
are taken up to 390 feet above the ground. This is the maximum
height that passengers are lifted to, and the operators do not
always go up this high.
Wildlife
The Bournemouth area has long been a place where many unusual
species of animals and plants can be found.
Brownsea
island
, in nearby Poole Harbour, is one of the few places
in the south where the red squirrel
still remains, and the ant Formica pratensis had its last
stronghold in the area, although it is now thought to be extinct on
the mainland. Although described by
Farren White as "the common wood ant of
Bournemouth" in the mid-19th century, the noted
entomologist Horace Donisthorpe found only one colony
of true
pratensis out of hundreds of
F. rufa nests there in 1906. In recent
times the last known two colonies disappeared in the 1980s, making
this ant the only ant species thought to have become extinct in
Great Britain. It does, however, still survive on cliff-top
locations in the Channel Islands. The rare
narrow-headed ant also used to exist in
Bournemouth, although it has died out in the area.
Naming Conventions
The word
'Bournemouth' is often used (erroneously) to describe the South East
Dorset conurbation, which also contains neighbouring towns of Poole, Christchurch, Wimborne
Minster
, Verwood
, Ringwood
and New
Milton
. As a result, the following
misnomers have come to exist:
Twin towns
See also
Notes and references
- Components may not sum to totals due to rounding
- Includes hunting and forestry
- Includes energy and construction
- Includes financial intermediation services indirectly
measured
External links
- the UK's largest fractional horsepower motor
manufacturer has its headquarters in Wallisdown
has a large office in Bournemouth
is located near Hurn
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