History of Bournemouth - Recent History

Recent History

The section of the coast both to the east and to the west of Bournemouth was very important during the Second World War. For example Poole (Poole Harbour) was the departure point for many ships participating in the D-Day landings, and Studland Bay (just south of Poole) was the scene of practice live fire beach landings in preparation for the Normandy Landings. Bournemouth itself was not a main target of bombing during the war but was on the route for other raids (e.g. on Coventry) and German bombers were known to unload their spare bombs on the town; 219 local people were killed by bombing during the war.

After the Second World War, Bournemouth saw a period of decline as a seaside resort and a tourist destination, similar to other resorts across England. However the population of the town and its surrounding suburbs continued to grow at a considerable rate. In 1880, the town had a population of 17,000 people. By 1900 this had risen to 60,000, and by 1990 it had more than doubled again, reaching 150,000. In the latest census, the town had a population of 163,441. Since the 1990s there have been increasing calls for the town, together with Poole, to attain official city status (as per the example of Brighton & Hove) due to its sheer expanse and regional importance.

On 15 September 1980 Bournemouth was one of the first areas outside a major city to get its own independent radio station. 2CR FM broadcasts from near Bournemouth railway station; its name, meaning 2 Counties' Radio, is derived from the fact that its broadcast area includes parts of the counties of Dorset and Hampshire.

The town itself has continued to expand its business and tourist destination potential. The Bournemouth Eye, for example, is located in the Lower Gardens a few yards from the Square. It is a tethered helium-filled balloon in which the public can travel up to a height of five hundred feet, depending on the weather on any given day (in high winds it sometimes does not operate). There are good views to be obtained of the surrounding area, from the Isle of Wight round including the Purbeck Hills and Cranborne Chase.

In the 1990s a leisure complex including an IMAX cinema was constructed on the sea front by Bournemouth Pier. The cinema is currently closed for renovation. The building itself has proved deeply unpopular amongst locals for its lack of aesthetic quality and for blocking the sea view. It featured on and came second in Demolition, a 2005 Channel 4 programme asking the public to choose the building that the they most wanted to demolish . Questions were asked of the Council about the cost of demolition as a result .

Bournemouth was the first local authority in the UK to install CCTV cameras in public places, introducing them on the seafront in 1985. The original intention for using CCTV was to deter petty vandalism and crime however, with local authorities increasing reliant on parking penalties as a form of revenue; CCTV in Bournemouth is used to send fast response personnel in vans to ticket parking offenders within minutes of their violation.

Recently, a new £9.5 million Bournemouth Library was completed in 2003, winning the Prime Minister's Better Public Building Award in the British Construction Industry Awards competition in recognition of its relatively low cost and high fit with client requirements.

In recent years the town has attracted a high number of jobs in financial services, with JP Morgan Chase, Abbey Life and Portman Building Society all opening major offices. JP Morgan Chase has a large campus style office on the outskirts of the town in the Littledown area supplemented by further offices in the town centre, and employs over 4,000 people in the town. The financial sector is in fact the biggest source of income for Bournemouth, although a general misbelief is that the tourism sector is responsible for this.