|
| |
|
bournemouth |
| |
|
|
|
Renowned for its clean sandy beaches, the resort of Bournemouth is
the nucleus of Europe's largest non-industrial conurbation stretching
between Lymington and Poole harbour. The resort has a single-minded
holiday-making atmosphere.
The city dates only from 1811, when a local squire, Louis Tregonwell,
built a summer house on the wild, unpopulated heathland that once
occupied this stretch of coast, and planted the first of the pine trees
that now characterize the area. Sadly, the blandly modern town that you
see today has little to remind you of Bournemouth's Victorian heyday,
though it does boast some exuberant horticultural displays, and
exploring Bournemouth's public gardens can easily fill a day. Moreover,
the pristine sandy beach ranks as one of southern England's cleanest,
while the town possesses a first-rate indoor attraction in its Russell-Cotes
Art Gallery and Museum on East Cliff Promenade (Tues-Sun 10am-5pm;
free), which houses a motley assortment of artworks and oriental
souvenirs gathered from around the world by the Russell-Cotes family,
hoteliers who grew wealthy during Bournemouth's late-Victorian tourist
boom. The benefactors' lavishly decorated former home, featuring unusual
stained glass and ornate painted ceilings, is jam-packed with their
eclectic collections, of which the Japanese artefacts are especially
interesting. There are some good examples of Pre-Raphaelite and other
British art downstairs, period decor throughout and a cliff-top
landscaped garden.
In the centre of town, you might visit the graveyard of St Peter's
church, just east of the Square, where Mary Shelley, author of the
Gothic horror tale Frankenstein , is buried, together with the heart
belonging to her husband, Percy Bysshe Shelley, former resident of
Boscombe. The tombs of Mary's parents - radical thinker William Godwin
and early feminist Mary Wollstonecraft - are also here.
|
| |
|
