THE SQUARE. BOURNEMOUTH. DORSET. 1982.

Place your cursor over parts of the image to reveal further information.

 

A very potted history of The Square.........

 

The Square is where seven roads leading to and from all parts of the borough converge. Although not geographically at the centre of town it is at the heart of what is known as the Town Centre.

The seven roads are.....Old Christchurch Rd ,Gervis Place, Exeter Rd, Commercial Rd, Avenue Rd, Bourne Ave and Richmond Hill.

 

Two hundred years ago and beyond it was the point at which the Bourne stream was crossed, by way of a ford, by those travelling over the unspoilt heath that lay between Christchurch and Poole.

The area was frequented by smugglers who carried out their illegal goings on along this isolated section of coast through much of the 1700s and early 1800s.

From the mid 1700s a small property, Bourne House / Decoy Pond Cottage stood where Debenhams now stands, with an associated decoy pond, used for hunting and trapping wildfowl, being created along the Bourne stream where the War Memorial now stands in the Central Pleasure Gardens.

 

 

The Square has undergone a number of facelifts in the last 200 years since Bournemouth was officially founded in 1810 by Lewis Tregonwell. The ford was replaced by a wooden bridge in the late 1830s, then a stone one in 1849. Over time the bridge was replaced and the area enlarged resulting in the stream running underground as it flowed from the Central Pleasure Gardens into the Lower Pleasure Gardens on its way to the sea, meaning it can be crossed by thousands of people every day without anyone having to get their feet wet.

 

Not suprisingly the area was known as The Bridge but became known as The Square from the mid 1850s.

 

In 1899 a roundabout with a tall lamp post was created in the centre of The Square which survived until around WW1 when a plain oval 'roundabout', minus the lamp post, replaced it.

In 1925 a Captain Norton donated a shelter cum waiting room, adorned by a clock, that was used by tram and trolleybus passengers until 1948, when it was replaced by a large roundabout in the middle of which stood a tall pedestal with the clock from the shelter ontop.

In 1992 The Square was semi-pedestrianised with a path created across the roundabout to link the two sides, with the opening of the fully pedestrianised Square, complete with a pebble mosaic, Millenium Flame and Obscura Cafe coming in February 2000.

 

FURTHER INFORMATION ON ABOVE IMAGE.

 

A.

The single storey Wilts and Dorset bank building was built in 1859 on the corner of Bourne Ave [ Sanatorium Rd ] and Richmond Hill [ Nurses Hill ] .

In 1875 Hankinson's Estate Agency moved in from their premises on the Exeter Rd side of The Square and a second floor was added.

In the late 1890s the building was extended further along Bourne Avenue with further commercial companies moving in.

It was replaced in the late 1920s, early 30s by the buildings that occupy the site today, the corner one of which was a branch of Burtons Menswear for years, but is now a New Look fashion outlet.

 

B.

The original St Andrews Church was built from corrugated iron sheet over a wooden frame on this site in 1857, and was known as the Scotch Church. This method of construction was a relatively cheap and cheerful way of providing a variety of community buildings such as churches, scout huts and village halls, popular in Victorian times.

It was replaced by a stone church building in 1872.

 

In 1888 Central Chambers, that housed the Mansion Hotel was built, which became the Empress Hotel in 1906.

Various commercial premises occupied the ground floor, most noteably the Cadena Cafe, part of a national chain.

 

In 1930 the Cadena Cafe was replaced by the National and Provincial Bank who expanded their premises from next door, which they had occupied since 1879.

In 1968, after a merger, the bank became the National Westminster Bank [ Nat West ], who still occupy the buildings today.

 

The Empress Hotel closed in 1953, with the name transferring to the Osborne Hotel on Exeter Rd.

 

C.

The wider left hand building dates from 1879 and occupies the spot where Robert Day's little wooden photographic studio hut stood in the 1860s.

It still stands today and is part of the neighbouring Nat West Bank premises.

 

The thinner, taller right hand building was built in 1963 and replaced the previous stucture, with it's fancy Victorian front gable, that had been built in 1881.

Beckford House originally stood here and was built in 1848 as the home of George Fox, one time owner of the Tregonwell Arms and Bournemouth's first postmaster.

 

D.

Rebbeck's Corner at the junction of Old Christchurch Rd and Gervis Place.

William Rebbeck came to Bournemouth in the 1830s as estate agent to the 'Bourne Tregonwell' estate.

 

In 1851, Rebbeck's small single storey office was built here, with the family home, Gervis Villa, standing directly behind. A second storey was added in 1873.

In 1887 it was replaced by a much larger Rebbeck's building which they occupied until 1934 when they moved to their new premises, next door to what is today the Moon In The Square pub, where they still trade as Rebbeck Brothers, although there is no longer any family involvement.

Their former premises were replaced by this current building, a shop, in 1936.

It was a Dolcis shoe shop for years and is a T Mobile store in 2011.

 

E.

Bournemouth's Yellow Buses, operated by Bournemouth Transport, were owned by Bournemouth Council.

Trams first appeared on the town's streets in 1902 and were replaced by trolleybuses in the 1930s.

The trolleybuses were officially retired in 1969 and were superceded by the diesel engined bus.

Prior to 1951, when their bus depot opened in Mallard Rd, the main depot was in Southcote Rd. There were further small depots located on Wimborne Rd in Moordown, and Christchurch Rd at Pokesdown.

 

In 2005 the Council sold Yellow Buses to Transdev, a French company, and moved into new premises in Yeomans Way behind Castlepoint.

Transdev have recently sold up to RATP.

 

 

Done