Bournemouth seafront in Summer season. XPL 5012-468
A modern bustling seaside resort with a mixture of old and new buildings jutting up above the line of the cliffs and treetops; the gothic turrets sitting on the Royal Bath Hotel and the Russell Cotes museum, the art deco splendour of The Pavilion, the monolithic Bournemouth International Centre and the space-age silver waves of the new Imax cinema. It’s impossible to imagine that, less than 200 years ago, this whole area was uninhabited heathland stretching between Poole and Christchurch. At that time, both of these towns lacked the extensive suburbs which surround them today, merging the boundaries within what is now a vast built-up area. Back then, the mouth of the Bourne stream was the haunt of smugglers, gypsies and fishermen, even though the other South Coast resorts of Brighton and Weymouth had enjoyed the patronage of Royalty who first popularised the British seaside. Bournemouth could really be said to owe its existence to the Napoleonic Wars, which started in 1796. It was then that Captain Louis Tregonwell of the Dorset Yeomanry was made responsible for the defence of this stretch of coastline where the risk of enemy invasion had been mentioned by the Earl of Southampton back in 1575.
Size: 5498px × 3625px
Location: Bournemouth Pier, Seafront, Dorset. England. United Kingdom.
Photo credit: © David Gowans / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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