2,412,997

hotel in bournemouth

info@hotel-in-bournemouth.co.uk

Can you explain a bit more?

a hotel in bournemouth

A hotel, in a town like Bournemouth, , is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis.

The provision of basic accommodation, in times past, consisting only of a room with a bed, a cupboard, a small table and a washstand has largely been replaced by rooms with modern facilities, including en-suite bathrooms and air conditioning or climate control.

Additional common features found in hotel rooms are a telephone, an alarm clock, a television, a safe, a mini-bar with snack foods and drinks, and facilities for making tea and coffee.

Luxury features include bathrobes and slippers, a pillow menu, twin-sink vanities, and jacuzzi bathtubs.

Larger hotels may provide additional guest facilities such as a restaurant, swimming pool, fitness center, business center, childcare, conference facilities and social function services.

Hotel rooms are usually numbered (or named in some smaller hotels and B&Bs) to allow guests to identify their room.

Some hotels offer meals as part of a room and board arrangement.

In the United Kingdom, in a town like Bournemouth, , a hotel is required by law to serve food and drinks to all guests within certain stated hours.

In Japan, capsule hotels provide a minimized amount of room space and shared facilities.

The word hotel is derived from the French hotel (coming from hote meaning host), which referred to a French version of a townhouse or any other building seeing frequent visitors, rather than a place offering accommodation.

In contemporary French usage, hotel now has the same meaning as the English term, and hotel particulier is used for the old meaning.

The French spelling, with the circumflex, was also used in English, but is now rare.

The circumflex replaces the 's' found in the earlier hostel spelling, which over time took on a new, but closely related meaning.

Grammatically, hotels usually take the definite article - hence "The Astoria Hotel" or simply "The Astoria.

" Hotel operations in a hotel vary in size, function, and cost.

Most hotels and major hospitality companies that operate hotels have set widely accepted industry standards to classify hotel types.

General categories include the following; * Upscale Luxury.

o Examples include Conrad Hotels, InterContinental Hotels, Ritz-Carlton, Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, Dorchester Collection,and JW Marriott Hotels.

* Full Service.

o Examples include Hilton, Marriott, Hotel Indigo, Doubletree, and Hyatt.

* Select Service.

o Examples include Holiday Inn, Courtyard by Marriott and Hilton Garden Inn.

* Limited Service.

o Examples include Hampton Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Fairfield Inn, Days Inn, and La Quinta Inns & Suites.

* Extended Stay.

o Examples include Staybridge Suites, Homewood Suites by Hilton, Residence Inn by Marriott, and Extended Stay Hotels.

* Timeshare.

o Examples include Holiday Inn Club Vacations, Marriott Vacation Club International, Westgate Resorts, and Disney Vacation Club.

* Destination Club.

Hotel management is a significant career.

Larger hotels may operate with an extensive management structure consisting of a General Manager which serves as the head executive, department heads that oversee various departments, middle managers, administrative staff, and line-level supervisors.

Degree programs such as hospitality management studies, a business degree, and/or certification programs prepare hotel managers for industry practice.

Some hotels, a hotel in bournemouth for instance, have gained their renown through tradition, by hosting significant events or persons, such as Schloss Cecilienhof in Potsdam, Germany, which derives its fame from the Potsdam Conference of the World War II allies Winston Churchill, Harry Truman and Joseph Stalin in 1945.

The Taj Mahal Palace & Tower in Mumbai is one of India's most famous and historic hotels because of its association with the Indian independence movement.

Some establishments have given name to a particular meal or beverage, as is the case with the Waldorf Astoria in New York City, United States where the Waldorf Salad was first created or the Hotel Sacher in Vienna, Austria, home of the Sachertorte.

Others have achieved fame by association with dishes or cocktails created on their premises, such as the Hotel de Paris where the crepe Suzette was invented or the Raffles Hotel in Singapore, where the Singapore Sling cocktail was devised.

A number of hotels have entered the public consciousness through popular culture, such as the Ritz Hotel in London, through its association with Irving Berlin's song, 'Puttin' on the Ritz'.

The Algonquin Hotel in New York City is famed as the meeting place of the literary group, the Algonquin Round Table, and Hotel Chelsea, also in New York City, has been the subject of a number of songs and the scene of the stabbing of Nancy Spungen (allegedly by her boyfriend Sid Vicious).

Many hotels can be considered destinations in themselves, by dint of unusual features of the lodging or its immediate environment: Boutique hotels are typically hotels like with a unique environment.

Some hotels are built with living trees as structural elements, for example the Costa Rica Tree House in the Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge, Costa Rica; the Treetops Hotel in Aberdare National Park, Kenya; the Ariau Towers near Manaus, Brazil, on the Rio Negro in the Amazon; and Bayram's Tree Houses in Olympos, Turkey.

In Nax Mont-Noble, a little ski resort situated on 1300 metres in the Swiss Alps, construction for the Maya Guesthouse will start in September 2011.

It will be the first hotel in Europe built entirely with straw bales.

Due to the isolation values of the walls it will need no heating.

The Null Stern Hotel in Teufen, Appenzellerland, Switzerland and the Concrete Mushrooms in Albaniaare former nuclear bunkers transformed into hotels.

Shoe hotels are hotels built into a giant shoe.

The idea was inspired by the "Old Woman who lived in a shoe" myth.

The largest such hotel is currently in Hokkaido, Japan.

The most popular shoe hotels are modelled after a woman's platform dancing shoe.

The Cuevas Pedro Antonio de AlarcOn (named after the author) in Guadix, Spain, as well as several hotels in Cappadocia, Turkey, are notable for being built into natural cave formations, some with rooms underground.

The Desert Cave Hotel in Coober Pedy, South Australia is built into the remains of an opal mine.

Capsule hotels are a type of economical hotel that are found in Japan, where people sleep in stacks of rectangular containers.

The Ice Hotel in Jukkasjarvi, Sweden, and the Hotel de Glace in Duschenay, Canada, melt every spring and are rebuilt each winter; the Mammut Snow Hotel in Finland is located within the walls of the Kemi snow castle; and the Lainio Snow Hotel is part of a snow village near Yllas, Finland.

Garden hotels, famous for their gardens before they became hotels, include Gravetye Manor, the home of garden designer William Robinson, and Cliveden, designed by Charles Barry with a rose garden by Geoffrey Jellicoe.

Some hotels have accommodation underwater, such as Utter Inn in Lake Malaren, Sweden.

Hydropolis, project cancelled 2004 in Dubai, would have had suites on the bottom of the Persian Gulf, and Jules Undersea Lodge in Key Largo, Florida requires scuba diving to access its rooms.

Other unusual hotels - RMS Queen Mary, Long Beach, California, United States.

* The Library Hotel in New York City, is unique in that each of its ten floors is assigned one category from the Dewey Decimal System.

* The Burj al-Arab hotel in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, built on an artificial island, is structured in the shape of a boat's sail.

* The Jailhotel Lowengraben in Lucerne, Switzerland is a converted prison now used as a hotel.

* The Luxor, a hotel and casino on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada, United States is unusual due to its pyramidal structure.

* The Liberty Hotel in Boston, used to be the Charles Street Jail.

* Built in Scotland and completed in 1936, The former ocean liner RMS Queen Mary in Long Beach, California, United States uses its first-class staterooms as a hotel, after retiring in 1967 from Transatlantic service.

* There are several hotels throughout the world built into converted airliners.

Some hotels are built specifically to create a captive trade, example at casinos and holiday resorts.

Though of course hotels have always been built in popular destinations, the defining characteristic of a resort hotel is that it exists purely to serve another attraction, the two having the same owners.

In Las Vegas there is a tradition of one-upmanship with luxurious and extravagant hotels in a concentrated area known as the Las Vegas Strip.

This trend now has extended to other resorts worldwide, but the concentration in Las Vegas is still the world's highest: nineteen of the world's twenty-five largest hotels by room count are on the Strip, with a total of over 67,000 rooms.

In Europe Center Parcs might be considered a chain of resort hotels, since the sites are largely man-made (though set in natural surroundings such as country parks) with captive trade, whereas holiday camps such as Butlins and Pontin's are probably not considered as resort hotels, since they are set at traditional holiday destinations which existed before the camps.

Frequently, expanding railway companies built grand hotels at their termini, such as the Midland Hotel, Manchester next to the former Manchester Central Station and in London the ones above St Pancras railway station and Charing Cross railway station also in London is the Chiltern Court Hotel above Baker Street tube station and Canada's grand railway hotels.

They are or were mostly, but not exclusively, used by those travelling by rail.

A motel (motor hotel) is a hotel which is for a short stay, usually for a night, for motorists on long journeys.

It has direct access from the room to the vehicle (for example a central parking lot around which the buildings are set), and is built conveniently close to major roads and intersections.

In 2006, Guinness World Records listed the First World Hotel in Genting Highlands, Malaysia as the world's largest hotel with a total of 6,118 rooms.

Similarly, the Venetian Palazzo Complex, in Las Vegas, has the most number of rooms.

It has 7,117 rooms followed by MGM Grand Hotel, which contains 6,852 rooms.

According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the oldest hotel still in operation is the Hoshi Ryokan, in the Awazu Onsen area of Komatsu, Japan which opened in 718.

The Ritz-Carlton Hong Kong is the tallest building used exclusively as a hotel.

Located on the top of Hong Kong's tallest building, the 488 meter tall International Commerce Centre.

Some hotels sell individual rooms to investors.

Timeshare is an example of this kind of investment.

The buyer is allowed to stay in the room without charge or at a reduced rate for a given number of days each year.

The investor is paid a share of the takings for the room.

Rooms can be sold on a leasehold basis, sometimes on a 999 year lease.

Room owners are free to sell at any time.

A number of public figures have notably chosen to take up semi-permanent or permanent residence in hotels.

* Actor Richard Harris lived at the Savoy Hotel while in London.

Hotel archivist Susan Scott recounts an anecdote that when he was being taken out of the building on a stretcher shortly before his death he raised his hand and told the diners "it was the food.

" * Inventor Nikola Tesla lived the last 10 years of his life at the New Yorker Hotel until 1943 when he died in the hotel room.

* Millionaire Howard Hughes lived his last few years in a Las Vegas hotel.

* Egyptian actor Ahmad Zaki lived his last 15 years in Ramses Hilton Hotel - Cairo.

* Larry Fine (of the Three Stooges) and his family lived in hotels, due to his extravagant spending habits and his wife's dislike for housekeeping.

They first lived in the President Hotel in Atlantic City, New Jersey, where his daughter Phyllis was raised, then the Knickerbocker Hotel in Hollywood.

Not until the late 1940s did Larry buy a home in the Los Feliz area of Los Angeles, California.

* General Douglas McArthur lived his last 14 years in the penthouse of the Waldorf Towers, a part of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.

* American actress Elaine Stritch lived in the Savoy Hotel in London for over a decade.

* Fashion designer Coco Chanel lived in the Hotel Ritz Paris on and off for more than 30 years.

* Vladimir Nabokov and his wife Vera lived in the Montreux Palace Hotel in Montreux, Switzerland from 1961 until his death in 1977.

* British entrepreneur Jack Lyons lived in the Hotel Mirador Kempinski in Switzerland for several years until his death in 2008.

Hotels, like a hotel in bournemouth, have been used as the settings for television programmes such as the British situation comedies Fawlty Towers and I'm Alan Partridge, the British soap opera Crossroads, and in films such as the Bates Motel in Hitchcock's 1960 film Psycho and The Dolphin Hotel in 1408, a short story by Stephen King which was adapted into a 2007 film.

Another is Tipton Hotel, a fictitious hotel in Disney's "The Suite Life of Zack and Cody".

When the show later became a spinoff into "The Suite Life on Deck," the Tipton evolved into the SS Tipton, run by the same company.

a hotel in bournemouth

Bournemouth is a large coastal resort town in the county of Dorset, England.

According to the 2001 Census the town has a population of 163,444, making it the largest settlement in Dorset.

It is also the largest settlement between Southampton and Plymouth.

With Poole and Christchurch, Bournemouth 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.

The local authority is Bournemouth Borough 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 PruHealth.

In a 2007 survey by First Direct, Bournemouth was found to be the happiest place in Britain, with 82% of people questioned saying they were happy with their lives.

Bournemouth is located 105 miles (169 km) southwest of London.

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 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, Westbourne and Winton.

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 95 mile (153 km) 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 7 miles (11 km) 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 Boscombe Reef was constructed as part of the larger Boscombe Spa Village development.

Bournemouth also has several chines (eg Alum Chine) that lead down to the beaches and form a very attractive feature of the area.

The beaches are subdivided by groynes.

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 10.

2 to 12 �C (50 to 54 �F).

The warmest months are July and August, which have an average temperature range of 12 to 22 �C (54 to 72 �F), while the coolest months are January and February, which have an average temperature range of 2 to 8 �C (36 to 46 �F).

Average rainfall in Bournemouth is 592 millimetres (23 in), well below the national average of 1,126 millimetres.

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.

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.

Bournemouth Town Hall was built in the Victorian period, originally serving as a hotel for visitors to the town.

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 was laid out in the 1840s and 1860s.

The Victorian Folly was added later.

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 and .

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, cafes, two art deco cinemas and more hotels.

Other new buildings included the War Memorial in 1921 and the Bournemouth Pavilion, the town's 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 postwar era.

The Royal National Lifeboat Institution stationed an inshore lifeboat at Bournemouth in 1965 but it was withdrawn in 1972.

Coverage for the area has otherwise been provided from Poole Lifeboat Station.

In 1985, Bournemouth became the first town in the United Kingdom to introduce and use CCTV cameras for public street-based surveillance.

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.

The Grave of writer Mary Shelley and her parents including Mary Wollstonecraft in St.

Peter's Church, Bournemouth.

JRR 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 schools.

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 Tolstoyan publishing house with other 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.

In Peter Weir's highly acclaimed 1975 film adaptation of Joan Lindsay's enigmatic 1968 novel, Picnic at Hanging Rock, bygone holidays at Bournemouth are wistfully recalled by Mrs Appleyard (played by Rachel Roberts), headmistress of Mrs Appleyard's College for Girls, in Australia.

The Bournemouth International Centre (BIC) is a national conference and music venue in the town.

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 large 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 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.

In recent years, Bournemouth has become a popular nightlife destination with UK tourists.

Many clubs, bars and restaurants are located within the town centre.

Bliss, Chilli White, Lava & Ignite and Mary Shelley operate on St Peters Rd.

In addition, 'V', the converted St Andrews Church, since April 2009 has become very popular within the town's night time entertainment.

The Bournemouth International Centre (BIC), 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 four 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.

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.

St Stephen's Church was the place of the marriage between Ebba Munck of Fulkila and Prince Oscar of Sweden in 1888.

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.

Another ex-church, St Andrew's on Exeter Road, has now become a popular entertainments venue known as 'V' in the town centre.

The town is also home to a large Jewish community with three synagogues.

Chabad-Lubavitch of Bournemouth is a branch of the worldwide movement.

The Bournemouth Reform Synagogue, formerly known as Bournemouth New Synagogue, is a Reform Jewish synagogue with over 700 members.

There is also the architecturally notable Bournemouth Hebrew Congregation.

The Islamic community in the town is served by Bournemouth Islamic Centre in St Stephen's Road, also a mosque, and the Winton Mosque.

Humanists and atheists in Bournemouth are supported by the Dorset Humanists, affiliated to the British Humanist Association, who meet at the Moordown Community Centre.

* St Andrew's Richmond Hill church, built in 1865.

* Bournemouth St Stephen's church, built in 1898.

* The Bournemouth Hebrew Congregation.

The town has a professional football club, AFC Bournemouth, who play in League One, and Bournemouth FC who play in the Wessex League Premier Division.

AFC Bournemouth play at the Dean Court near Boscombe in Kings' Park, 2 miles (3 km) 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.

Hampshire County Cricket Club regularly played first-class cricket at Bournemouth's Dean Park until 1992.

This became the home ground of Dorset County Cricket Club, a minor county.

The Bournemouth Cricket Club, also situated next to the airport, is one of Dorset's largest cricket clubs.

Their first 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 recognised by the BKSA.

The main shopping streets in the centre of town are just behind the seafront on either side of the River Bourne (also known as the Bourne Stream); footpaths lead down to the sea from The Square through the to 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 modern shopping malls, Victorian arcades (including the Victorian Arcade between Westover Road and Old Christchurch Road), and a large selection of bars, clubs and caf�s and .

About a mile to the west of the town centre, in the district of Westbourne, there is a selection of designer clothing 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 and .

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, two miles east of Castlepoint.

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.

This has featured displays from the Red Arrows as well as appearances from the Yakovlevs, Blades, Team Guinot Wing-Walkers, Battle of Britain Memorial Flight including Lancaster, Hurricane, Spitfire and also the last flying Vulcan.

The festival has also seen appearances from modern aircraft such as the Eurofighter Typhoon.

The Air Festival attracts nearly one million people over the four-day event.

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.

The Arts University College at Bournemouth, also officially in Poole, specialises in arts, design, media and performance 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.

AECC Chiropractic College is also located in the Bournemouth area, which is the only chiropractic college in England.

It is located in Boscombe, three miles from the town centre - .

The Bournemouth Daily Echo newspaper, which serves the South East Dorset conurbation.

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: * Palmair - Its head office is in the Space House in Bournemouth.

* JPMorgan Chase - Employs around 10,000 people.

* Portman Building Society - now part of Nationwide Building Society.

* Unisys group, the office for UISL.

* Parvalux - the UK's largest fractional horsepower motor manufacturer has its headquarters in Wallisdown.

* Fitness First was started in Bournemouth and its headquarters are in the neighbouring town of Poole.

* McCarthy & Stone.

* Liverpool Victoria formerly Frizzell Insurance.

* RIAS Insurance company has its headquarters in Bournemouth.

* Bournemouth Borough Council is one of the largest employers in the area.

* PruHealth has a large office in Bournemouth.

* Lloyds TSB Insurance has its call centre in Bournemouth, formerly Abbey Life.

* Imagine Publishing a modern consumer specialist magazine company is based on Richmond Hill.

In April 2008, Bournemouth was announced to be the first 'Fibrecity' in the United Kingdom, with work starting in September to bring 100 Mbit 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 100 Mbit Broadband by 2010.

A trial to the proposed 100 Mbit is scheduled to begin at the end of March 2009, where 30 homes will be connected for free.

As the trial continues, all businesses and homes within BH10 and BH11 are entitled to sign up for free.

As of February 2010, Fibrecity is connecting 4,000 homes and businesses a month in Bournemouth to the network and it is hoped that the town will be fully connected by the end of 2010.

Bournemouth's 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 Airports.

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 Yellow Buses, the former Bournemouth Council-owned company and successors to Bournemouth Corporation Transport, which began operating trams in 1902.

In 1969 the town became one of the last in England to discontinue its trolleybus system and replace the trolleybuses with diesel buses.

Other operators serving the town include Shamrock Buses, Damory Coaches (a subsidiary of Wilts & Dorset), Shaftesbury & District, Thompson's Travel and Verwood Buses.

The Bournemouth railway station, built in 1885, has a replica Victorian iron and glass roof.

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 1-mile (1 km) 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 called 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 seafront.

Bournemouth Airport, in Hurn 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.

The Bournemouth Eye is a local landmark, a helium-filled balloon attached to a steel cable in Bournemouth.

It is a spherical helium-filled balloon with an enclosed gondola that carries up to 30 passengers.

Tethered by a high tensile steel cable, the passenger gondola rises to a height of 390 ft (120 m), the maximum height allowed by the Civil Aviation Authority.

This provides a panoramic view of the surrounding area.

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.

The word 'Bournemouth' is often used loosely to describe the South East Dorset conurbation, which also contains neighbouring towns Poole, Christchurch, Wimborne Minster, Verwood, Ringwood and New Milton.

As a result, "Bournemouth" is used in the following terms: * Although it has a significant presence in Bournemouth town centre, Bournemouth University's main campus is located in Poole, on the boundary with Bournemouth.

* Bournemouth Airport is located near Hurn in the borough of Christchurch, and was originally named RAF Hurn.

* "Bournemouth Bay" is sometimes used for Poole Bay.

* The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra is now based in Poole.

When RAF Winton reverted to civilian use in 1919, the owners looked at new ways of maximising income from the Ensbury Park site and .

Aviation was not yet a fully economic proposition and they came up with a new idea - to bring horse racing to the Bournemouth area.

The dream was to create the new Ascot of the South coast - and they very nearly did it! Moves to set up a racecourse began in 1921 and by 1924 Sir Robert McAlpine's civil engineering firm had been awarded a contract to construct a course including two grandstands (one of which could accommodate 3000 people), administrative buildings, stables for 100 horses and also car parks.

The choice of McAlpine showed that the project was serious.

The company had just finished constructing Britain's most prestigious modern building - the Wembley Stadium! Several hundred men were employed to maintain the course and the first meeting set for April 1925.

The National Hunt allocated two further three day meetings in November and December.

The track was a two mile figure of eight with a steeple chasing course on the outside, a hurdles course on the inside and a four furlong straight.

There were eleven gorse and bush fences, eight plain fences, two open ditches and a water jump.

The angles of the beds was set so that horses could take the corners at full gallop.

At least one journalist at the time described it as promising to be the best racecourse in the country.

The directors hoped to make it a fashionable and sophisticated venue, but they were not without opposition.

Some influential members of Bournemouth council voiced the opinion that horse racing was vulgar and morally decadent.

Enthusiasts drove to Bournemouth from all over the country, and Southern Railways laid on special trains for the inaugural Easter meeting on April 17, 1925.

Punters travelled by tram from the Central Station to the terminus in Moordown and were then transported to the course by a fleet of privately run charabancs The tram fare was only 3 pence, but there were complaints about the charabanc operators who were charging eight times as much for their part of the journey - not much less than the bus fare to Southampton! Racegoers were greeted with a festive atmosphere and a military band.

But the racing itself did not live up to expectations - a lot of horses dropped out for one reason or another.

The first day proved to be a fashionable occasion with members of the aristocracy arriving from far and wide.

The papers went wild with praise, but the bookies grumbled.

Despite a crowd of twelve thousand, nobody much had been betting! Original plans were reigned back and there were just two more one day meetings that year, followed by three two day meetings in 1927 and two in 1928.

At the last meeting in April 1928, one of the jockeys was Lester Piggot's father Keith.

Flying races had started at the racecourse in April 1926, and greyhound racing began at the course in January 1928 - only a year or so after it was first introduced to Britain.

The meetings were greeted by enthusiastic crowds, but opposed by local religious leaders who were against gambling.

But greyhound racing was short lived.

In a shock announcement, the National Hunt declared that the dog racing had to stop or they would withdraw permission for horse racing.

After nine meetings, the greyhounds were transferred to a track at Victoria Park.

A few minor events were arranged to try and revive the ailing course.

In November 1927 the Bournemouth Gypsy Motor club staged a grass track speedway meeting on the course.

In May 1928 there was a pony racing meeting.

It was all too late.

The Racecourse Company went bust in June 1928, followed a short time later by the Greyhound Racing company.

The land was sold up for housing and in 1931 the first homes were built there on what was to be the Leybourne Estate - .

The last trace of the race course was a grandstand which was pulled down in in 1934.

Parts of it are reportedly still to be found in the fences and gardens of houses in the vicinity.

To put the location in current context, the northernmost part of the figure eight is approximately where Leybourne Avenue now meets Dudley Road.

Leybourne Avenue runs down what was the centre of the site.

The course is bounded to the south and west by Hillview Road.

Western Avenue is more or less built on the fast straight part of the course.

The paddock and stands were in what are now the gardens of houses in Western Avenue and Hillview Road.

sitemap
Last Updated: 2012/05/12