1# The Bournemouth Library

Bournemouth Library

The main town centre library in The Triangle opened to the public on 24^th April 2002 on the site of an NCP car park.  For many years prior to that the plot had been occupied by Robson & Son, whose well-stocked store included grocery, provisions, fruiterers, poulterers and hardware of all kinds.

Built under the government’s Private Finance Initiative, construction work began on the new library in November 2000 by Henry Jones, part of the large Kier Group. The two floors of the library have dedicated zones for children and teenagers on Floor 1, whilst specialist music and local heritage resources are on Floor 2.

In 2003 the library won the Prime Minister’s “Better Public Building” Award.

Bournemouth’s first public library opened in temporary premises at Cumnor Terrace at the beginning of 1895, just off Old Christchurch Road. The first permanent library in the town opened in Winton in 1907 and after a number of refurbishments, still provides an excellent service for that neighbourhood. The former Central Library, now part of Bournemouth & Poole College, opened at The Lansdowne in 1913.

Peter Kazmierczak, Senior Heritage Librarian, Bournemouth Libraries

# 25 Bournemouth - IMAX

See video of the virtual demolishment of this hated building during the Arts by the Sea Festival in
2012

http://youtu.be/18rgkMq0AF4

20# Bournemouth - The Royal Bath Hotel

Royal Bath Hotel

The foundation stone for Bournemouth’s very first hotel was laid in 1837. Built from designs by Christchurch architect Benjamin Ferrey, it was officially opened by Sir George Tapps Gervis on 28^th June 1838, the very day of Queen Victoria’s Coronation.

The Bath Hotel, as it was originally known, was THE place to be if one was staying in the newly developing seaside settlement of Bournemouth.

In December 1876 an hotelier from Glasgow, Merton Russell-Cotes, bought the hotel. Two new wings were added, designed by Christopher Crabb Creeke. It was reopened by the Lord Mayor of London as the Royal Bath Hotel on 11^th August 1880, the same date that Bournemouth’s second pier was opened.

A new wing was added in 1887, with further additions in 1913. During the Second World War, between July 1941 and September 1946, the hotel was requisitioned for use by the Royal Canadian Air Force as officer’s accommodation. A third of the hotel was engulfed by fire in January 1979, taking over a year for renovation work to be completed.

Peter Kazmierczak, Senior Heritage Librarian, Bournemouth Libraries

# 19 Bournemouth - The Lansdowne

The Lansdowne - Lansdowne Hotel on the right and Queen Hotel on the left.

1865

Day Collection. Bath Road showing corner of Holdenhurst Road and Christchurch Road. The house "Lansdowne House" stood on site of present Metropole. On the right of Bath Road stands the Imperial Hotel and on the left the Queens and St. Mark's Church. The roads were not properly made up, there was no drainage, therefore no gutters etc.

 

18# Bournemouth - Railway Station

 

 

Bournemouth Railway Station

http://bit.ly/Z60TnJ Link to sounds

Three stations have served the centre of Bournemouth. The solitary surviving one, with its attractive overall roof, dates from 20^th July 1885. This sees a regular service of fast and frequent electric trains to Weymouth, Southampton and London Waterloo. Also diesel trains run further afield to Birmingham and Manchester. The wide gap between the  platforms was originally occupied by two through lines, but these were lifted in 1967 when electric trains replaced the earlier steam-powered ones.

The very first station in the town was situated on the other side of Holdenhurst Road, on a site now occupied by blocks of student accommodation. It was a small one-platform affair, at the end of a winding single track branch line from Ringwood and Christchurch. The station opened on 14^th March 1870, closing to passengers when the current station opened on the other side of the road.

On the opposite side of the town a station opened on the Queens Road on 15^th June 1874. This was the terminus for many visitors from the Midlands and North of England. Known as Bournemouth West, this officially closed from 4^th October 1965, though the last trains actually ran on 5^th September of that year.

Peter Kazmierczak, Senior Heritage Librarian, Bournemouth Libraries

#17 Bournemouth - Site of Bournemouth Rowing Club

Rowing Regatta 1956

Westover Rowing Club

The Westover and Bournemouth Rowing Club traces its history back to 1865, but celebrated its centenary in 1977. Confused? Well the club is the child of many parents: one of its antecedents was a drinking club formed in a cave at the foot of Richmond Hill in the early days of the town, and one of its members Alderman W. H. Ridout afterwards became president of its successor, the Bournemouth Bicycle Club, founded in the Belle Vue Hotel (now sire of the Pavilion); its members set on their penny farthings every Whit Monday from the Pembroke Commercial Hotel on Poole Hill.

The Bicycle Club amalgamated with the Bournemouth Amateur Rowing Club, which had been founded in 1871, to form the Westover Club in 1877. It occupied premises on the West Beach seafront, which had leased the land from the Meyrick Estate in 1865. The Rowing Club element lapsed in 1911 and was reformed in 1924. The club celebrated its centenary as a Rowing Club in 1865 and as the Westover Club in 1977.

The club has remained proud of its heritage as Bournemouth’s oldest non-political club; speaking in 1953, the president Mr Montague said that its members liked to play bridge or snooker, read, sip lemonade, or go onto the balcony for a snooze. The more active members also rowed. In recent years the club has relocated to joint sites in Meyrick Park and at Hengistbury Head, and the old club house being demolished in 2012.

Michael Stead, Heritage Team, Bournemouth Libraries

# 16 Bournemouth - West Cliff Lift

West Cliff Lift

http://bit.ly/Zmb32J   Link to audio commentary

The West Cliff Lift opened four months after its East Cliff counterpart on 1^st August 1908. It is slightly shorter in length at 145ft (44m) and doesn’t rise quite as high to only 102ft (31m) as that on the East Cliff, but the track gauge is identical at 5ft 6in (1676mm). However, the original cars were slightly bigger and could accommodate 16 passengers, four more than at the East Cliff.

After closure for the duration of World War 2, in 1962 the original cars were replaced by new Council-built ones. The tracks were renewed in 1986 with the rails set on pre-cast concrete units replacing the original timber baulks.

Peter Kazmierczak, Senior Heritage Librarian, Bournemouth Libraries

# 15 Bournemouth BIC

The Bournemouth International Centre

 

The Bournemouth International Centre was opened in 1984 on the site of aging hotels in Cliff Cottage and South Cliff roads. Sir Patrick Abercrombie had suggested developing the site in the 1940s. In the early 1980s plans were fiercely debated, with Council meetings lasting 8 hours, over the £16 million cost. The centre was intended to host 4,000 conference delegates, boxing matches and tennis championships. There was to be a 73,000 sq ft swimming pool and a multi-story car park.

 

Early design included a series of glass-fibre tents and a three-star tower-block hotel. ‘Module 2’, the company which won the contract, began with a design like a dalek spaceship. The Council funded the centre by selling the Pier Approach Baths, land on the West Cliff and 45 acres of land at Littledown.

 

The Royal Fine Art Commission said of the design, that Bournemouth Council had ‘irrevocably damaged one of the most sensitive sites on the South Coast’. Supporters believed the BIC would put Bournemouth into the ‘European First League’. Work on the new structure started in March 1982; controversy dogged decisions to award the ventilation system to a Dutch company, and the marketing to a company based in Brighton – Bournemouth’s biggest competitor.

 

By July 1983, a new conference centre manager had been appointed – Mr Luis Canda – he forecast that the centre would extend the holiday season at Bournemouthm from 8 to 16 weeks in the summer. Mayor Jeanne Curtis officiated at the topping out ceremony in July 1983.

 

he centre was opened in September 1984, by Mayor Cllr Michael Filer, who declared that it marked the beginning of Bournemouth’s future. Visitors on the opening day could see the ‘Community Awareness’ exhibition, including two double-decker busses, in the main hall (which comedienne Victoria Wood later described as ‘like the loading bay at British Home Stores’. Outside, on opening day, language students raised flags of all the European countries.

 

The Centre has an early success with a visit by Johnny Mathis, which brought Town Centre traffic to a halt. At her later concert Shirley Bassey looked around the hall and commented ‘It will be nice when it’s finished’. 1,500 delegates from the Labour Party used the BIC for their conference in 1985. In September 1986 the Conservative Party arrived with PM Margaret Thatcher and (in the wake of the Brighton bombing) a £1 million security bill.

 

With a large Conservative Party conference planned for 1990, money was raised to build a £4.6million flying-saucer extension. Having run for 5 years, the BIC had made a modest profit of £60,000, but brought an estimated £20 million worth of business to Bournemouth.

Michael Stead, Heritage Team, Bournemouth Libraries

#14 Bournemouth - Tregonwell's Statue

Tregonwell’s Statue

Link to audio file

http://bit.ly/10Oj3Mg

During his year as Mayor of Bournemouth, Keith Rawlings commissioned sculptor Jonathan Sells to provide some public art, Bournemouth having little in the way of statues. Mayor Rawlings identified Lewis Tregonwell, the founder of the town, and Christopher Crabb Creeke, the first paid surveyor to the Bournemouth Commissioners, as the two individuals whose contribution to Bournemouth was significant enough to justify their commemoration.

Tregonwell is shown with a bucket and spade, to show his role in bringing people to Bournemouth to enjoy the seaside. He also carries a scroll with the names of three locally born men who were awarded the Victoria Cross.

Creeke, rather cheekily, is shown sitting thoughtfully on a water closet, as one of his main tasks in 1856 was to improve the sewers in Bournemouth. He was also responsible for repairing the roads and for providing the town with a pier or jetty. He lived centrally at Lainston Villa, in the grounds of Portman Lodge (the first building erected in the town by Tregonwell).

Michael Stead, Heritage Team, Bournemouth Libraries

#12 Bournemouth - Exeter House

 

July, 1927

Postcard of the Exeter Hotel, (also known as Royal Exeter Hotel) Exeter Road, Bournemouth

The present hotel, with its Victorian enlargements and the polygonal ‘palm court’ of 1919 on the corner of Exeter Park Road, can trace its history back to the earliest days of Bournemouth, surviving an attempt to replace it with flats in 1959.

 Much of the hotel was built by its Victorian owner Henry Newlyn, whose father had converted it from a former school to a hotel in 1871. Henry added the massive central battlemented tower, adorned with a design of crowns, to celebrate Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee in 1887.

 

The hotel had once been a boys’ school, run by Reverend J. H. Wanklyn; who laid out Bournemouth’s first cricket pitch in the grounds, the subsequent owner, developer Peter Tuck, built Exeter Park Road and a dozen villas over the cricket pitch.

 

Built in 1812, and known as ‘The Mansion’, the property was the seaside retreat of Lewis and Henrietta Tregonwell, of Cranborne. They were so taken with the beauty of Bourne when they visited in 1810, that they bought some land and formed a small community ‘Bourne Tregonwell’, which later inspired the Lord of the Manor, Sir George Tapps, to build a marine village that has since grown to become Bournemouth.

Michael Stead, Heritage Team, Bournemouth Libraries

1810

Exeter House - the first house in Bournemouth, built by Lewis Tregonwell. Now part of the Royal Exeter Hotel.

#11 Bournemouth - Orchard Street

Orchard Street

Looking through an A-Z for Bournemouth, you’d be hard pressed to find any streets. Plenty of roads, avenues, drives, crescents and closes, but there is only one street – Orchard Street. This runs between Commercial Road and Terrace Road, dating from around 1850.

The name “Orchard” has two possible derivations. One is that there may well have been an orchard here and one of the boundary tracks later became the site for Orchard Street. Another is that the name Orchard has associations with the Tregonwell family in the villages of Orchard Portman and Orchard Wyndham in Somerset.

So why are there no other streets in Bournemouth? In the 1850s, as Bournemouth was beginning to develop into a town, the word “street” specifically referred to a paved area in a village. Hence, for this expanding town, roads were felt more appropriate than streets.

Peter Kazmierczak, Senior Heritage Librarian, Bournemouth Libraries

10# Bournemouth Pier

Any self respecting holiday resort wants a pier and Bournemouth was no exception. A short 100ft (30m) wooden jetty was completed in 1856, but this was soon washed away by storms.

George Rennie, an eminent engineer of the period, designed Bournemouth’s first real pier in 1859. It was constructed of wood being 1000ft (305m) long and opened on 17^th September 1861 by Sir George Meyrick. The piles were soon being attacked by the Teredo worm, so during the late 1860s they were gradually replaced by cast iron ones.  A gale in 1867 swept away 300ft (91m) and another storm in 1876 rendered the structure unsafe and it was subsequently demolished.

A new 838ft (255m) long cast iron pier, designed by Eugenius Birch was opened by the Lord Mayor of London on 11^th August 1880, later being extended to 1000ft (305m). During the Second World War the pier was breached in July 1940 as an anti-invasion measure, being fully reopened again in November 1947.

A concrete substructure was built to carry the Pier Theatre which opened on 3^rd June 1960. From 1979 the pier was extensively rebuilt, with much use of reinforced concrete. A new leisure complex was opened at the pier head on 16^th July 1981, to mark completion of all these works.

Peter Kazmierczak, Senior Heritage Librarian, Bournemouth Libraries

9# Bournemouth - The Pavilion

 

A large black and white photograph showing a view of The Pavilion, Westover Road, Bournemouth, not long after completion in 1929.


The Pavilion

Plans for a Pavilion near the seafront go back to the formative days of Bournemouth’s history. In 1836 there was a scheme to include a Pagoda in early plans for the developing holiday settlement. Two years after Bournemouth became a Borough in 1890, authorisation was received to construct a Pavilion. Five designs were submitted before the scheme was abandoned in 1894.

During the 1900s there were again hopes that a Pavilion would be constructed, but the First World War intervened and nothing got built. In 1922 a new Pavilion scheme was approved by the Council and after a competition, the design chosen was by a virtually unknown team of architects; Messrs G Wyville Home and Shirley Knight of London. A local building firm, Messrs James and Seward, were contracted to clear the site and build the Pavilion.

The Pavilion was opened by HRH the Duke of Gloucester on 19^th March 1929. The venue became the home of the Bournemouth Municipal Orchestra until it moved to the Winter Gardens in 1947. The first concert included music by Elgar, Vaughan Williams and Max Bruch. Stanley Holloway starred in the first show in the theatre.

Various refurbishments have been carried out over the years and in 1998 the Pavilion was made a Grade II listed building. More recently, renovation of a previously disused part of the building has led to the establishment of Pavilion Dance, a centre for dance both locally and wider afield.

Peter Kazmierczak, Senior Heritage Librarian, Bournemouth Libraries

#8 Bournemouth - The Lower Gardens

7# Bournemouth - St Peter's Church

St Peter's Church 1868

Watercolour landscape painting on paper of the porch of St. Peter's Church, Hinton Road, Bournemouth, with the church slightly visible in the background. The porch has two small wooden gates and a tiled roof with a cross on it. 'Bournemouth 1875' is written on the reverse in pencil and '682' is written above it.

St Peter’s Church

The soaring spire of St Peter’s Church reaches 202ft (62m) to the sky. This is exactly half the height of Salisbury Cathedral, though whether by accident or design isn’t known.

The history of St Peter’s goes back to 1838 when a temporary chapel was built in The Square on the present site of Debenham’s, converted from two cottages on that plot. In 1841 the foundation stone was laid for the first permanent church on the present site. This church was consecrated in 1845 on the appointment of the Rev Alexander Morden Bennett as its first vicar. Morden Bennett was to become the leading figure in the development of not only St Peter’s, but in the formation of other churches and schools around Bournemouth.

In 1853 Morden Bennett commissioned George Edmund Street to prepare plans for a much larger church, with construction taking places in stages, to match the growth of Bournemouth itself. The new church incorporated the south aisle of the original building, but as the new St Peter’s grew the remainder of the first permanent church was demolished.

Peter Kazmierczak, Senior Heritage Librarian, Bournemouth Libraries

6# The Echo Building - The Art Deco Echo

http://bit.ly/ZJWahM     Link to a video

Daily Echo Offices

Listed as a Grade II building in June 1994, the Daily Echo offices stand in a prominent position on Richmond Hill. The distinctive art-deco building was opened in January 1934 and housed, up until April 1997, both the editorial staff and the printing presses of the Bournemouth Daily Echo newspaper. Now just the reporters remain for the newspaper itself is printed at Redbridge, on the western outskirts of Southampton.

The history of the Echo goes back to 20^th August 1900 when the first edition was published. Printed in the Exchange in Holdenhurst Road, the offices were in Shaftesbury Hall Chambers, Old Christchurch Road. Later they moved to Albert Road, opposite The Arcade.

Peter Kazmierczak, Senior Heritage Librarian, Bournemouth Libraries

5# Bournemouth - The Square

The square 1873

 
The Square

Standing in The Square on the pebble mosaic by the cafe, you are at the heart of Bournemouth. Fully pedestrianised in 2000, this was once a key road junction, bustling with passengers running to catch their tram or trolleybus to the outlying suburbs from a large shelter in the middle of the main thoroughfare.

Originally situated on the lonely trackway over the heath between Christchurch and Poole, in the 1830s a wooden plank bridge was provided for the road to cross over the Bourne Stream. Hence this area became known as The Bridge. A stone replacement was provided in 1849 and when a number of shops appeared at the lower end of Commercial Road in the 1850s, the name The Square began to be used.  This name probably applied to the open area in front of these shops – a “shopping square”, rather than a physically square area.

Improvements were made in 1884 to the bridge and in general widening of the area. There was a suggestion to alter the name to Park-Place or Garden-Place, but this wasn’t taken up. Further remodelling took place in 1899 with an enlargement of the area resulting in the creation of a central island with an electric lamp standard in the middle.

In 1925 a shelter was provided with a clock tower, for tram and trolleybus passengers. These were removed in 1947 when work began on the creation of a traffic roundabout.

Back in 1856 the Bournemouth Improvement Commissioners measured their centre of influence from the Belle Vue Hotel on the seafront, and after the Second World War town planner Patrick Abercrombie felt that The Lansdowne would make a better centre. However The Square has endured and is still the focal point of the town.

The Square 1900

4# Bournemouth Town Hall

Postcard of The Mont Dore Hotel in 1910 before it became the Town Hall.

The Town Hall

Standing outside Bournemouth’s Town Hall perhaps you’re thinking that this doesn’t look very much like how a typical town hall might appear. You’d be right, because this building was originally an hotel – the Mont Dore.

The foundation stone of the Mont Dore was laid by Oscar II, King of Sweden and Norway, on 25^th May 1881. The five-storey building was designed in the Italian style by Alfred Bedborough and constructed by Messrs Howell & Son. It opened on 23^rd May 1885 and offered the latest in water treatments, both external (showers, jet sprays and vapours) and internal (drinking Mont Dore water imported from Auvergne in France).

The luxurious hotel was requisitioned during the First World War for use as a hospital for Indian troops and later as a convalescent home for British Officers.

After the war the building was purchased by Bournemouth Corporation in 1920, opening after internal alterations, as the Town Hall on 1^st October 1921. A new Council Chamber was completed in July 1932.

A two-storey extension in St Stephen’s Road was finished by November 1972, whilst a larger seven-storey block behind the original hotel was officially opened in February 1992. To make way for the latter, the Grand Hall had to be demolished in 1989.

In 2002 the original Mont Dore part of the Town Hall was designated a Grade II listed building.

3# Bournemouth - The War Memorial

http://bit.ly/14pasGh   Link to poem

The War Memorial

Bournemouth’s imposing War Memorial stands by the Bourne Stream in the middle of the Central Gardens. It was unveiled by the Lord Lieutenant of Hampshire, Major General J E B Seeley, on 8^th November 1922.

Designed by A E Shervey, the Deputy Borough Architect, the monumental work was carried out by local sculptor W A Hoare from Boscombe. Borders of rose bushes were also planted at the same time.

In 1980 the Memorial was cleaned and refurbished, proceeds from the Town Lottery being used to pay for the costs.

Peter Kazmierczak, Senior Heritage Librarian, Bournemouth Libraries

2# Bournemouth - Avenue Road - Tram Disaster

http://bit.ly/16RfAR2   Link to a rap on the disaster

 http://bit.ly/ZkZgCB   Link to video

On 1^st May 1908 at 6.50pm (18.50) there occurred in Bournemouth an accident which ranks amongst the worst on Britain’s tramways.

Car number 72 was descending the incline from Poole Hill into The Square via The Triangle when the driver, William Wilton, lost control. The car attained a dangerously high speed and left the rails at the right-hand curve in Avenue Road. It crossed the nearside pavement and plunged down a bank into the garden of Fairlight Glen House, where it came to rest on the steeply wooded slope lying on its side.

Of the 40 or so passengers on the car, seven were killed and 26 were injured, some very seriously.

So what had gone wrong? A badly worn connection in the controller caused the brakes to become ineffective. The resulting official report resulted in a big shake-up, with the Corporation appointing a properly qualified tramway manager to run the system.

 Peter Kazmierczak, Senior Heritage Librarian, Bournemouth Libraries