Month: April 2021

Working people at early Victorian Bournemouth
1st Period

Working people in early Victorian Bournemouth

Introduction Working people formed a parallel settlement to the resort they had built for affluent visitors at early Victorian Bournemouth. Although the press concentrated on marketing the site to higher types, occasional reports show a range of attitudes towards improving the quality of working people’s lives. Apartheid Out of sight In 1843 Scrooge suggested exiling […]

Bournemouth's Taste for Meat
1st Period

Benefits of early Bournemouth’s meat demand

Introduction Early Bournemouth’s meat demand in particular helped revive Christchurch’s commercial health. For most of Bournemouth’s early period much of the meat consumed there may have come from farming and butcher families active in Christchurch’s hinterland. Family networks, based in Christchurch, but in some cases their links reaching into Dorset, appeared to maintain control of […]

Reading early Bournemouth's vacation property development
1st Period

Property development in early Victorian Bournemouth

Introduction Changes in building format used during early Bournemouth’s property development suggest visitor types altered. At the initial stages, the built environment took the shape of large, Italianate villas. Single households, including large service retinues would take each building. Later, building designs appeared to encompass smaller properties, while subdivision allowed several parties, without apparent relationship, […]

Paradise for an adventurer
1st Period

Early Bournemouth: paradise for an adventurer?

Introduction In 1937, a book appeared entitled Shanghai, The Paradise of Adventurers. The book depended on but also supported the town’s association as a place that attracted roguish characters. The book observed how the word ‘adventurer’ had acquired a fresh meaning. ‘Adventurer is pictured to us as an expert exploiter, a clever trickster, a cunning […]