Bournemouth

Bournemouth
Population
OS grid reference	SZ085912
Unitary authority	Bournemouth
Ceremonial county	Dorset
Region	South West
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	BOURNEMOUTH
Postcode district	BH1 to BH11
Dialling code	01202
Police	Dorset
Fire	Dorset and Wiltshire
Ambulance	South Western
UK Parliament	Bournemouth East Bournemouth West

Bournemouth is a large town and tourist resort, situated on the south coast of England. With a population of 164,000 it is the largest settlement in the ceremonial county of Dorset. The town is a regional centre of education and business and part of the South East Dorset conurbation, with the adjoining town of Poole. The town is most notable as the home of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, as well as Bournemouth University and the Bournemouth International Centre. The town is also home to several financial companies including JPMorgan Chase, the Portman Building Society and Standard Life.

Geography

Bournemouth is located about 105 miles southwest of London at 50.72°N 1.88°W / 50.72; -1.88. A roundabout at the end of the Wessex Way called "County Gates" (but 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 marks the border between Bournemouth and Poole.

Historically Bournemouth was part of Hampshire, with Poole just to the west of the border between the two counties. 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 April 1 1997, Bournemouth became a unitary authority, independent from the county council. For the purposes of the Lieutenancy it remains part of the ceremonial county of Dorset.

The urban geography of Bournemouth is complex as the town merges with several other towns to form the South East Dorset conurbation which has a combined population of 383,713, the whole area being sufficiently populous to be one of the major retail and commercial centres in the south of England. As such the town adjoins Poole in the west and Christchurch in the east. 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 of the town centre, towards Hurn. The town is intersected by the A338 dual carriageway, known as the "Wessex Way".

Although Bournemouth lies adjacent to the sea, the centre of the town lies inland - the commercial and civil heart of the town being "The Square". From the Square the gardens descend down to the seafront and the pier. Areas within Bournemouth itself 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) have seen massive growth in recent years, especially through the growth of students attending Bournemouth University (the administrative area and main campus of which is in fact located in Poole).

Bournemouth Town Hall

Bournemouth is located directly to the east of the "Jurassic Coast", a 95 mile 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 itself overlooks Poole Bay and the Isle of Wight, which is visible from some vantage points. Bournemouth also has approximately 7 miles of sandy beaches that run from Christchurch in the east to Sandbanks in the west. The stretch of beach along Poole Bay does not all belonging to Bournemouth however, since its western part is in Poole.

Because of the coastal processes that operate in Poole Bay, the area is often used for surfing. An artificial reef (Europe's first) will be installed at Boscombe, in Bournemouth, between May and September 2007 using large sand-filled geotextile bags. The reef is being constructed as part of the larger Boscombe Spa Village development. Bournemouth also has several chines (e.g. Branksome Chine, Alum Chine) that lead down to the beaches and form a very attractive feature of the area. The beaches are themselves subdivided by groynes.

Literature references

Bournemouth is in Hardy country, and 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.

Climate and tourism

Bournemouth is also in an area of England with a mild climate and a section of the coast that enjoys some of the warmest, driest and sunniest weather in Britain, especially in the summer. Because of this and the town's proximity to the New Forest, Jurassic Coast, Devon and the Dorset and Hampshire countryside, Bournemouth is a historically popular tourist destination.

History

Bournemouth Beach

The area surrounding Bournemouth has been the site of human settlement for thousands of years. In 1800 the area was largely a remote and barren heathland, used only by smugglers 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, to the west was Poole, and to the north east was the river Stour. There were villages at Kinson, Throop, Holdenhurst and Iford and a handful of buildings at Pokesdown. 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). It was divided into six tythings: 'Muscliff', 'Muccleshell', 'Throop', 'Holdenhurst', 'Iford' and 'Tuckton & Wick'. These areas were common land 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 know 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 Inclosure Act of 1802 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 in order to pay for their work in creating the award. The Commissioners were Richard Richardson of Lincoln’s Inn fields, John Wickens of Mapperton, Dorset and William Calpcott of Holdenhurst. 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 425 acres, 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', 'Queens Park', 'Kings 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 500 acres including the West Cliff and what is now King's Park. Sir George Ivison Tapps, the Lord of the Manor of Christchurch, paid £1,050 for 205 acres 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, 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 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 smugglers 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. 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 inherited his fathers 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.

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.

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. He was the author of a book called '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. It was this more than anything that put the town on the map as the perfect place for people with health problems, especially chest complaints which were far more common in the 19th century than today.

Bournemouth quickly became a destination for affluent holiday-makers and for invalids in search of the sea air. In the 1840s the fields south of the road crossing (later The Square) were drained and laid out with shrubberies and walks.

In 1849 a bridge was built over the Bourne Stream provides the beginning of 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 Crabbe Creeke, 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 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 former name of 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) and Sir Merton Russell-Cotes.

History of the Railway in Bournemouth

On 14 March 1870 the London and South Western Railway 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 June1874 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 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 station (since closed) was opened on land situated between Ashley Road and Gloucester Road, the original was renamed Pokesdown. 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.

The Pleasure Gardens and the sanatorium

The Pleasure Gardens are still an important landmark and the Central Gardens contain the town's impressive war 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.

A large sanatorium, 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 the Town Hall. 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 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

Bournemouth pier

The first pier in Bournemouth consisted of a short wooden jetty that was completed in 1856. This was replaced by a much longer wooden pier, designed by George Rennie, which opened on September 17 1861. Due to an attack by Teredo worm, 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. After repairs, the pier continued in use for a further ten years until November 1876 when another severe storm caused further collapse rendering the pier too short for 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, was completed.

At a cost of £2,600 the new Bournemouth Pier was opened by the Lord Mayor of London on August 11 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 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 an army demolition team in the spring of 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 program 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.

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). Elgar, Sibelius and Holst 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 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, Pink Floyd and Morecambe and Wise. 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 2006.[1]

The Pavilion and the Westover Road cinemas

The Pavilion dates from 1925 and was built on the site of the former Belle Vue boarding house, one of the town's first buildings. Theatrical legends, including Ralph Richardson and Trevor Howard, 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 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, Dusty Springfield, Victor Borge 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 World War 2. For example Poole (Poole Harbour) was the departure point for many ships participating in the D-Day landings, and Studland Bay (just south of Poole) was the scene of practice live fire beach landings in preparation for the Normandy Landings. Bournemouth itself was not a main target of bombing during WW2 but was on the route for other raids (e.g. on Coventry) and German bombers were known to unload their spare bombs on the town; 219 local people were killed by bombing during the war.

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) due to its sheer expanse and regional importance.

On September 15 1980 Bournemouth was one of the first areas outside a major city to get its own independent radio station. 2CR FM broadcasts from near Bournemouth train 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 Eye, for example, is located in the Lower Gardens a few yards from the Square. It is a tethered helium-filled balloon in which the public can travel up to a height of five hundred feet, depending on the weather on any given day (in high winds it sometimes does not operate). There are good views to be obtained of the surrounding area, from the Isle of Wight round including the Purbeck Hills and Cranborne Chase.

In the 1990s a leisure complex including an IMAX cinema was constructed on the sea front by Bournemouth Pier. The cinema is currently closed for renovation. The building itself has 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 programme asking the public to choose the building that the they most wanted to demolish [2]. Questions were asked of the Council about the cost of demolition as a result [3].

Bournemouth was the first local authority in the UK to install CCTV cameras in public places, introducing them on the seafront in 1985. 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 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, Abbey Life and Portman Building Society 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.

The town's Coat of Arms

The famous Bournemouth Coat of Arms has a truly regal and dignified appearance, enhancing anything it embellishes. At one time it was painted in full colour on the town's yellow buses, and all Bournemouth schoolboys wore it on their blazers. In fact prefects at the town's Grammar School were honoured to wear a special silver badge of the arms, pinned to their brown and blue caps (a modified version of which practice continues today, largely in the form of tie-clips). Upon the advent of unitary authority status Bournemouth Borough Council adopted the Coat of Arms and crest as its corporate identity and, once again, it adorns literature, road signs and vehicles just as it did many years ago.

The Bournemouth Arms were granted as long ago as 24 March 1891, and while most people merely cast a cursory glance at the design, it is worth a while to study it more closely, because each intricate part has a very important metaphorical significance. The Helmet, sometimes called the Helm, is mounted above the shield as a reminder that knights wore such a helmet in battle to protect themselves.

The Crest is part of the Coat of Arms which was originally worn on top of the Helm as a means of recognition in battle. Bournemouth's crest consists of four English Roses surmounted by a Pine Tree, befitting indeed for a town which boasts such award-winning gardens and parks. The town's motto, "Pulchritudo et Salubritas", is printed on an ornamental scroll at the base of the arms, the Latin words reminding all that Bournemouth is both "beautiful and healthy".

The main part of the Coat of Arms is the Shield. In the time of chivalrous Knights, this was, of course, held in the hand and used as protection to the body in battle. Bournemouth's shield, in both design and colour, is based on the Royal Arms of King Edward the Confessor, in whose Royal estate the area now known as "Bournemouth" was situated. The four salmon represent those to be found in the River Stour, which marks the boundary between Christchurch and Bournemouth.

Each of the lions on Bournemouth's crest holds a rose between its paws. What look like six birds, are in fact Martlets. They have no legs and exist only in heraldry - not in the real world of nature. The nearest similar actual bird, as regards the name, is the Sand Martin. The Roses, four above the headband supporting the crest, and two held by the lions, are first and foremost a Royal Emblem of England, and secondly a reminder that Bournemouth used to be in the County of Southampton, more generally called Hampshire. The attitude of the lions is said to denote watchfulness and readiness for defence in the event of an attack along the sea coast close to the town.

It is perhaps a little ironic, that a resort with such a short history, should have a Coat of Arms reflecting times and attitudes predominant long before it existed, but the irony is balanced because the age of courtesy and spirit reflected in the Arms, appositely illustrates the chivalry and the charm of the people and the town of Bournemouth.

Culture and recreation

Bournemouth Richmond Hill church

The town is an important venue for major conferences and the Bournemouth International Centre (BIC), which stands on the cliff-tops near the middle of the town overlooking the sea and the pier, is the town's main venue for large conferences including in 2003 the Labour Party annual conference, and in 2006 the Conservative Party conference.

Bournemouth is a 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 export. The town also has its own internationally recognised university - Bournemouth University.

The Russell-Cotes Museum[4] is located just to the east of the Central Gardens near to the Pavilion and next to the Royal Bath Hotel. The museum includes many fine mostly 19th century paintings and the family collections acquired when travelling e.g in Japan and Russia. It was Sir Merton Russell Cotes, one of Bournemouth's most prominent Victorians, who successfully campaigned to have a promenade built; it runs continuously along the Bournemouth and Poole shoreline.

The Royal Bath Hotel[5], located near the sea and just to the east of the Central Gardens, has attracted many important visitors over the years, including Oscar Wilde, H. G. Wells, Richard Harris, Sir Thomas Beecham, Shirley Bassey, and prime ministers Lord Beaconsfield (who stayed for three months to help his gout), Gladstone, Asquith and Lloyd George. Royal guests have been Edward VII and Edward VIII when each was the Prince of Wales, George VI when he was the Duke of York, Queen Wilhemina of the Netherlands and Empress Eugenie of France.

Gardens and Sport

Bournemouth 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 Pavillion and the IMAX cinema.

The town also plays host to a professional football club, AFC Bournemouth, currently playing in League One. They play at the Fitness First Stadium near Boscombe in Kings' Park, about two miles east of the town centre.

Bournemouth Cricket Club situated next to Bournemouth International Airport are one of Dorsets' Premier Cricket Clubs, Their 1st Team play in the Southern Premier League

Shopping

The main shopping streets in the centre of town are just behind the seafront on either side of the small Bourne river; indeed 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 major stores (Debenhams, Beales, Marks and Spencer, BHS, Dingles), modern shopping malls, Victorian arcades (including the elegant 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 an impressive 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 a new out-of-town shopping complex called Castlepoint with supermarkets, DIY stores and larger versions of high street shops. Other supermarkets are located in town centre (ASDA and Co-Op), Boscombe (Sainsbury's) and between Westbourne and Upper Parkstone.

Nightlife

Bournemouth, once referred to as "God's Waiting Room", has in recent years become a much younger, vibrant place. It has a large student population (including many exchange students) and many young people are drawn there by its extensive nightlife, including clubs opening 24 hours all day everyday. The town has many nightclubs and pubs, most of which have taken advantage of the recent change in licensing laws to stay open after the traditional pub closing time. However drinking alcohol in public, on the streets of Bournemouth is not allowed.

Economy

This is a chart of trend of regional gross value added of Bournemouth and Poole at current basic prices published (pp. 240-253) by Office for National Statistics with figures in millions of British Pounds Sterling.

Year	Regional Gross Value Added[1]	Agriculture[2]	Industry[3]	Services[4]
1995	2,740	4	665	2,071
2000	4,142	2	890	3,250
2003	4,705	2	898	3,804

1. Components may not sum to totals due to rounding
2. includes hunting and forestry
3. includes energy and construction
4. includes financial intermediation services indirectly measured

Major businesses

Many well-known global businesses were started in the Bournemouth area and many have later chosen to relocate their headquarters to Bournemouth because of the relatively low prices in comparison with London.

The following is a non-exhaustive list:

• JPMorgan Chase - its European headquarters employs around 10,000 people
• Portman Building Society
• UISL, part of the Unisys group of companies
• Fitness First was started in Bournemouth and its headquarters are in the neighbouring town of Poole
• McCarthy & Stone
• Liverpool Victoria
• Barclays Bank has a major IT centre in Poole
• Rias Insurance company has a major office in Bournemouth
• Standard Life has a large office in Bournemouth
• Lloyds TSB Insurance has its call centre in Bournemouth

Transport

Roads

With the growth of Bournemouth in recent years, traffic has increased dramatically. The conurbation of Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch shows increasing traffic congestion and the roads are often busy. Though attempts are being made to alleviate the congestion, the town is reliant on a few main roads in and out of the centre. Bournemouth Borough Council, in conjunction with its partners in Poole and Dorset Councils, has recently launched the www.GettingAbout.Info website [6] which provides accessible transport information for people in the South East Dorset area.

There is no motorway within the county of Dorset, although there is dual carriageway - the A338 "Wessex Way" - from Bournemouth town centre to the A31 dual carriageway leading to the M27 and 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.

Bus

National Express coaches serves Bournemouth Travel Interchange, Boscombe and Westbourne. There are frequent departures to London Victoria Coach Station. There are 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 Airports.

Local buses are provided by two rival companies, Wilts and Dorset, the former National Bus Company subsidiary, and Transdev Yellow Buses, the former Bournemouth Council owned company.

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 founding fathers not wishing to have a station within the town boundary, which extended 1 mile from the pier. However, this is not a major problem as the town has grown significantly since its founding and the railway station is now a major public transport hub for the area. The station was originally ¨Bournemouth East¨ with a second station serving the west of the town in Queens Road. (Poole station is by contrast near to Poole town centre). South West Trains operates a comprehensive service to London Waterloo with a journey time of as little as 1 hour 40 minutes. This line also serves Southampton, Winchester and Basingstoke to the East, and Poole, Wareham, Dorchester and Weymouth to the West. Virgin Trains serve destinations to the North with direct trains to Reading, Oxford, Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Manchester and the Northwest, Yorkshire, Newcastle, and Edinburgh and Glasgow. South Central Trains 'West-Coastway' 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.

Air

Bournemouth International Airport is a short journey from the Town Centre - enabling passengers and freight to be flown directly to destinations in the UK and abroad. Taxis going to Bournemouth are available at the taxi stand on the airport and will bring you to town centre in approximately 10-15 minutes. A typical ride will cost anywhere between £10 and £15 pounds. Heathrow and Gatwick are accessible by car or coach. Ryanair operates scheduled flights to Glasgow, Dublin, Barcelona (Girona), Madrid, Pisa (Florence) and Shannon. Air Berlin offer flights to Paderborn (W.Germany) and Wizz Air will commence flights to Katowice in Poland from 14 July 2007.

In March 2005 The airport saw its second big budget airline setup base Thomsonfly.com which offers flights to Alicante, Amsterdam, Faro, Gran Canaria, Grenoble, Ibiza, Malaga, Palma de Mallorca, Pisa, Prague, Salzberg, Tenerife & Valencia. Since 1993 Palmair have held their base at Bournemouth Airport as a charter airline offering charter flights to destinations on behalf of Bath Travel. The airport found fame in February 2006 when explorer Steve Fossett landed here following his successful attempt to fly around the world in his plane "Virgin Atlantic Global Flyer".

Sea

Bournemouth does not have its own harbour, but there are extensive ferry services to the Channel Islands and France (available from the Port of Poole). During summer, fast cat services operate to Cherbourg, Guernsey and Jersey, making it possible to enjoy the "booze cruise" that is more typically associated with the Kentish ports of Dover and Folkestone.

Schools in Bournemouth

Main article: List of Bournemouth schools

Wildlife

Bournemouth seen from Studland

The Bournemouth area has long been a place wherein 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.

Trivia

The word 'Bournemouth' is often used (erroneously) to describe the conurbation of Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch. As a result, the following misnomers have come to exist:

• "Bournemouth University" is actually mainly in Poole.
• "Bournemouth International Airport" is actually in Christchurch. The nearby village of Hurn resulted in its previous name of Hurn Airport.
• "Bournemouth Bay" does not actually exist, but is a common misnomer for Poole Bay.
• "Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra" is based in Poole.
• "Gordon The Tramp" is a famous Bournemouth local shrowded in mystique with many different theories about his personal wealth, and ability to tell the time without the use of a timepiece. File:GordonTheTramp.jpg

In a recent 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.

See also

• List of Dorset beaches

External links

• Official Bournemouth Borough Council information site
• Official Bournemouth tourist information site
• United Kingdom Census 2001 statistics for Bournemouth
• Bournemouth University
• The Arts Institute at Bournemouth
• Geology of the Dorset Coast website
• Bournemouth Daily Echo
• AFC Bournemouth, the local professional football club
• Winton Watch - news and information about the Winton area of Bournemouth
• Neighbourhood Management in Southbourne and Boscombe West, Bournemouth