Bournemouth
Above: Sit and enjoy the view
Yes, the survey, which was carried out by the First Direct bank, found that Bournemouth’s residents appreciate their seven miles of golden sand, the lively town-centre shops and restaurants, the theatres and nightspots, the beautiful gardens and sports facilities, and the countryside and forest within easy reach. Bournemouth Tourism’s Mark Smith said: ‘Bournemouth’s year-round appeal ensures that this happiness can be shared by the town’s five-million visitors every year.’ Many Bournemouth hotels offer spa treatments, and there are beauty boutiques all over the town centre, but this isn’t new. Victorians flocked to Bournemouth’s first spa hotel, opened in 1855 and named after a popular French spa town, ‘to sample the relaxing ambience, breathe its healthy air, bathe in the pure sea water and unwind at leisure’. The elegant Mont Dore Hotel is now Bournemouth’s Town Hall.
Famous For…
Bournemouth and Poole’s seven miles of golden beaches together hold 10 European Blue Flag Awards so, unsurprisingly, with those five million visitors to Bournemouth, it isn’t that easy to find a space during the high season. To the expert, it’s obvious that the highest concentration of sun-worshippers is around Bournemouth Pier, decreasing slightly relative to the distance from the pier. In other words, a little walk is rewarded with more space. Give it a try!
Leisure...
The Parks and Countryside Department has just published a leaflet with photographs and a map showing visitors where to find the 12 most exotic trees in the Lower and Central Gardens. The ‘Tree Trail’ pinpoints trees from China, Iran, Morocco and America. Pick up the leaflet from Town Hall reception or Westover Road Visitor Information Bureau. For more ‘leisure activities‘ – my favourite contradiction in terms – you can play mini-golf, in the Lower and Central Gardens, and tennis at Central Gardens’ Tennis Centre with several top-quality courts, and equipment hire if you’re unprepared. Golfing enthusiasts might happily forsake the town centre for the heather, gorse and pine woodland of Queen’s Park’s former Championship course, just off the A338 Wessex Way. You can ‘Pay and Play’ but telephone to book your tee-off time. If you prefer something more daring, and you look good in leathers and a crash helmet, visit the Indoor Karting Centre at Bournemouth International (Hurn) Airport.
Shopping...
There’s nowhere quite like Bournemouth for really serious shopping. If the dedicated follower of fashion doesn’t go home laden down with designer carrier bags, she (OK, or he) hasn’t really shopped properly. Unlike the crop of ‘everything-under-one-roof’ shopping arcades, here in Bournemouth you can breathe the fresh air, and indulge in an alfresco lunch, an aperitif or a coffee between shops. Crossing Bournemouth Square, which charmingly separates one side of the shopping experience from the other, you can catch accents and languages from all over the world, and hear the birds singing in the gardens as well. I could fill these pages with a list of fashion, furnishings and leisure shops, both nationally and locally famous, but you really should spend a day in Bournemouth and check them out for yourself – and don’t miss Dingles’ elegant black-and-white listed frontage in Gervis Place.
Food Specialities...
Food is Bournemouth’s special forté. Visitors from the farthest corners of the earth could probably find their native dish somewhere amongst the restaurants of Bournemouth, Boscombe and the nearby suburb of Charminster, where students and families from disparate exotic countries enjoy long, relaxing evenings in the friendliest of atmospheres. Menus from Spain, Italy, France, China, Mexico, USA, South America, Portugal, Central Europe, Thailand and Japan are extensively covered. Spend a fortnight exploring Bournemouth’s restaurants and you could enjoy delicious food from a different country nearly every evening. Then again, delicious local seafood is a speciality of many of Bournemouth’s modern-English restaurants. The proximity of neighbouring Poole’s fishing fleet guarantees a wide range of good fresh fish and shellfish, with menus changing daily to accommodate each day’s catch.
Entertainment and Events...
Bournemouth’s theatres are so busy this September, there’s only room to give the briefest details. Bournemouth Comedy Club continues to showcase UK talent, with fun, comedy, food and great nightlife, starting at 7pm every Saturday until 25th October at Jumpin’ Jaks on the Pier Approach.
The Pavilion Theatre welcomes the world’s funniest Cornishman on Sunday 7th September when Jethro returns, and the That’ll be the Day Summer Show continues until Saturday 13th, followed on Sunday 14th by ‘Beyond the Barricades’, re-creating songs and sounds of the world’s most popular musicals. For something a little more classical, the Pavilion is staging La Boheme on Monday 29th and Carmen on Tuesday 30th.
Manic Lee Evans brings his ‘Big UK Tour’ to the Windsor Hall at the BIC from Thursday 25th to Tuesday 30th. Over 250,000 people saw his sell-out 2005 tour, so they can’t all be wrong.
Bournemouth’s Open Air Art Exhibition, from 9.30am to 5pm in the Lower Gardens’ Pine Walk, is the largest open-air art display outside London and, for over 50 years, local artists have been meeting and discussing their work with visitors. There are widely varying displays of work, and you can pose Picasso-style with an alfresco coffee at the Café Jardin. But hurry, the exhibition closes on 9th September.
A Spot of Local Culture...
Admittedly a long way from Bournemouth, at the Villa Diodati by Lake Geneva in 1816, a contest between Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley and his future wife Mary Wollstonecraft resulted in probably the first science-fiction story ever written. Mary’s idea eventually developed into Frankenstein which was published two years later. Tragically, Shelley drowned in the Gulf of Spezia in 1822 when he was just 30 years old but the ashes of his heart, rescued from the beach funeral pyre, are buried with Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797-1851) in her family’s St Peter’s Bournemouth churchyard vault. Neither Percy not Mary ever lived in Bournemouth or Boscombe as is popularly believed but the town can justifiably claim to be their last resting place together.
Old Andrew
Bournemouth’s oldest building is Kinson’s 12th-century St Andrew’s church, but Kinson only became a Bournemouth suburb in 1931
New Wave…
Surf’s up! Boscombe’s artificial surf reef is due to be finished in October ready for the 2008 season
It’s a Laugh!
The ‘end-of-the-pier’ show lives! The Magic Laughter Show is on Tuesdays and Wednesday evenings at the Pier Theatre until 24th September
For Your Information…
Car Parking: NCP Avenue Road, St Paul’s Road and The Square (opposite Terrace Road), BIC multi-storey, Terrace Mount and Winter Gardens, and two in Bath Road.
Public Transport: Bournemouth has innumerable buses and trains. Details from Wilts and Dorset Buses Tel: 01202 673555 and www.wdbus.co.uk Transdev Yellow Buses Tel: 01202 636060 and www.bybus.co.uk and South West Trains Tel: 08457484950, and www.southwesttrains.co.uk
Tourist Information Centre: Tel: 0845 051 1700
Bournemouth Gardens Tennis Centre: Tel: 01202 298570
Queen’s Park Golf Course: Tel: 01202 437807
Indoor Karting Centre: Tel: 01202 570022
Pavilion Theatre and Bournemouth International Centre: Tel: 0870 111 3000