Bournemouth
What to see
You’ll find accounts of Bournemouth’s tourist attractions with additional information on shopping, eating out etc at Bournemouth.co.uk, Visit Bournemouth and Visit Dorset.
Links to local attractions include:
● Boscombe Pier
● Bournemouth Aviary
● Bournemouth Oceanarium
● Bournemouth Pier
● RockReef
● Russell-Cotes Art Gallery & Museum
Towns of Two Halves extracts:
● “The Vitality Stadium was plain (but somehow less vulgar) Dean Court when I was there. Dean Court stood in a corner of Kings Park, which in turn was some miles to the east of Dean Park. Naturally, a town of Bournemouth’s pedigree would have had more than one esteemed dean in its history; but it would help if they could be referred to by name or, as further along the south coast in Rottingdean, description.”
● “Boscombe has a modest pier; you’ll do better, pier-wise, by continuing westwards. You have a choice of transport: Shank’s Pony or the Bournemouth Land Train. At the Bournemouth Pier end of the line there are conventional seaside attractions. On the pier itself, the usual combination of high-octane naffery.”
● “In the precincts of St Peter’s graveyard is the final resting place of Mary Shelley. If you’re in Bournemouth for a night match, see whether you have the nerve to visit the church after dark.”
● “The Russell-Cotes Art Gallery & Museum is worth a visit for the view alone. If you’re at all susceptible to Victorian ebullience you’ll enjoy the rest of it too. The house was a present by Merton Russell-Cotes (the hyphen is a game attempt to reconcile three surnames, don’t you think?) to his wife Annie.”
These are taken from the Bournemouth chapter of Towns of Two Halves, published in 2018. To buy a copy, email info@townsof2halves.co.uk.