Wider footprint. Planning debate. Social zoning.

Introduction

Victorian Bournemouth (58) uses census listings to discuss how the resort’s built environment extended during its second period. It also considers such subjects as site layout, planning debates, and social zoning. 

Victorian Bournemouth (58): footprint

Areas

Only a part of rural Greater Westover in 1841, by 1851 Bournemouth had sufficient size to occupy its own census enumerator. The resort’s original settlement grew from the Bath Hotel, along a line of sixteen luxury villas heading north. The villas acquired individual identities, but without street allocation. Scattered buildings widened the resort’s footprint on the same basis. Ten years later, this extended across two main areas, reflecting Bournemouth’s sprawl across Holdenhurst and Christchurch parishes. In 1871, however, the town consisted of four main built blocks: one for either side of the Bourne, one for the northern and eastern part, one covering today’s Springbourne and surrounds. The enumeration districts began to reflect virtual sub-communities. Advertisements for land in Winton ran through the period, their success clear in 1871. In addition, Boscombe and Pokesdown took shape, while the old rural Greater Westover settlements retained their separate identities. 

Streets

The 1851 census recognised few streets, of which four had greatest population: Terrace Road and Richmond Terrace each having about double that of Poole Road/Hill and ‘Shore Road’. Terrace Road and ‘Shore Road’ formed one strip running east-west, Poole Road/Hill another. Richmond Terrace ran at right angles to them, but separate. By 1861, Christchurch Road (Madeira Vale) extended the east-west line of Poole Road/Hill. Much of the population remained in individual properties without street linkage. The town’s identity, depicted by its street names, therefore, on the one hand, consisted of a physical attribute (Terrace Road), on the other, of a physical position between Poole and Christchurch. All had changed by 1871. The census showed the results of extensive but planned building. Enumerators identified almost fifty streets, distributed in complex patterns across the footprint. Their names signified an established, proprietary local identity. Poole Road/Hill, for example, had become Commercial Road.

Victorian Bournemouth (58): buildings

Numbers

In addition to Exeter House, the 1851 census identified almost forty separate buildings at Bournemouth. Many of these consisted of ‘villas’ (e.g. Westover) and ‘cottages’ (e.g. Adelaide, Albert, Granville, Willow). In addition, the resort possessed shops and hotels. By 1861, the number of identified buildings had increased to around one hundred. According to their descriptors, these included more villas and cottages but also ‘houses’ (Madeira, Sea Grove, Sea Villa). In only 20% of cases did the same name occur in both the listings. If these referred to the same buildings, this indicates a substantial increase in the number of structures, thus greenfield activity. This number paled, however, compared to 1871, for now identified buildings had grown to almost four hundred. Buildings lasting over the thirty years accounted for about 5%, twenty years 10%. Thus, two thirds of 1851’s buildings had disappeared – renamed or replaced – while much fresh construction had occurred.

Planning debate

During Bournemouth’s early period its appropriate building development triggered a debate: convalescence against commerce. Physicians wanted piece-meal development, building by building. The siting of each building to benefit from the local climate took priority. Furthermore, this would create a rus in urbe: country appearance within a town. This meant few if any streets. The commercial perspective, however, aimed to develop the resort using streets as the basic unit. Investors wanted to ‘improve’ the site so that it maximised its commercial return. Perhaps as late as 1861, the convalescent argument prevailed, but, on the evidence of the 1871 census, their commercial opponents had won the day. After 1856, Bournemouth’s Improvement Commission took control of the town’s infrastructure. During the second period, this extended into active involvement in developmental planning. The presence of several builders on the Commission may have influenced their collective decisions on the debate.

Victorian Bournemouth (58): socio-economic zoning

Economic

The buildings served a variety of economic purposes. Some involved commercial usage, some residential, others a combination. The local economy divided between construction, habitation (leisure and residential), and retail. The building stock increased at a constant rate through construction. Buildings involved in commerce served both visitors and residents, providing habitation or products. According to their usage, the buildings had an uneven distribution throughout the settlement. Retail and some manufacturing, for example tailors, had their focus along the old Poole Hill, by now having the more appropriate name of Commercial Road. Leisure venues snaked around the settlement: Richmond Hill, Westover Road (and parallel roads behind), the shore front, Exeter House area (West Cliff), East Cliff. Residential had expanded to the east: Springbourne and its neighbourhood. In the original town, pictures show buildings in loose proximity with each other. In the new Springbourne area, they show houses adhering to a street’s imperative.

Social

In the beginning, Terrace Road, located near the visitors’ venues, had housed working people. Middling and professional people voiced concerns about its ineffective drains. Talk extended to the ‘correct’ location for labouring people, a subject anticipated by Dr Granville. Over time, however, fewer unskilled workers lived there. The 1871 census, however, shows that, in effect, the new Springbourne area had taken this role. Over two thirds of men working as labourers lived there, as did almost half of the construction artisans. One of the railway lines had just reached the area, its construction a magnet for transient workers, temporary dwellers. It contained one of the town’s few taverns, but also the police station. This social concentration seems no coincidence: a special residential zone for working people, quite separate from affluent and middling people. Again, its creation would seem to owe much to the Improvement Commission’s supervision of Bournemouth’s infrastructure.

Takeaway

Victorian Bournemouth (58) has explored aspects of Bournemouth’s built environment during a period of substantial growth. During this time, convalescent priorities became suppressed by the commercial imperative based on streets. The Improvement Commission appears to have guided building towards the creation of zones appropriate for different social categories.

References

Thanks to Bournemouth Grant and Alwyn Ladell for picture references. For discussion or other references please get in touch.