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England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => Dorset => England => Dorset Lookup Requests => Topic started by: Lizziefritz on Monday 20 June 11 21:25 BST (UK)
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I have a picture taken from the Landsdowne in Bournemouth during WW2 with Xs marking three separate buildings. I am trying to identify where and what those buildings may possibly be. It is an old postcard and I am not sure if I can post it here as a result. Can anyone help me please? :)
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I think you should be ok with photos.
Do you live in the Bournemouth area? I have family there, so maybe able to help. You can always send it me as a private message, but I think you are ok with putting photos on.
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I live in Canada. I was born in Bournemouth but have only visited there once when I was a teen ager. My parents met there. I am trying to tell their story. Here is a link to the card that I put on flickr. Hope this works. http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2724/5854168149_e71efc3639_m.jpg
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i know bournemouth quite well but i am only in my late 20's, so i might not be of much use im afraid. the link does work but the picture is very small and i havent worked out how to zoom in using the new mozilla. if you could post a slighty bigger picture it might help x
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The photo is actually of The Square looking towards Old Christchurch Road with the Upper Pleasure Gardens on the right. Due to the size I can only see 2 Xs but they seem to be on buildings that might be on Westover Road or maybe beyond that on Bath Hill. A larger photo would certainly help.
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I re-scanned the photo. Hope it is bigger now. http://www.flickr.com/photos/60876400@N06/5855979295/
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Spiderboy is not quite correct, it is the lower pleasure gardens on the right.
All three buildings are in Westover Road, the top one X is a hotel which used to be called the Palace Court Hotel, (I worked in a part of the same building in the 1950s) it is now a Premier Inn, opposite the Pavilion Theatre and Ballroom.
The next X is above where the Geaumont Cinema and the Ice Rink used to be, The lowest X is simply above a row of shops, it may have been the intention to indicate the ABC Cinema, all old haunt in my youth.
If you go to Google maps and enter Westover Road, you can see how it is today. there is also a picture of the Gaumont on Flicker
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stagedoor/332829461/
Jebber
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Thanks so much that really helps. I wouldn't be surprised if that might have been the hotel where my Dad was billeted during WW2. Do you know if people could get down to the beaches during the war to go for walks or were they all barricaded off and mined? Do you know where the Fullers Tea Shop was back then? Or how I could find out?
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I was born during the war, but I remember being taken down to the beach afterwards and seeing some of the barricades still in place.
Fullers Teas Shop was near the Gaumont Cinema.
I have been trying to find some old pictures for you, but I am not having much luck. I have some old photos, but they are packed away somewhere out of reach in the loft.
Jebber
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Sorry about getting my Uppers and Lowers mixed up :-[ Of course the Upper gardens are beyond the old Mont Dore Hotel (Town Hall) towards Coy Pond. Now that I can see the third X I'll stick my neck out and suggest that it's above the shop on the corner of Westover Road and Gervis Place. I think by the early 50s and possibly earlier this was Daniel Reed's (can't remember if that's the right spelling) or am I getting my Daniels mixed up - there was another one further along Westover Road near the Palace Court. It was certainly a branch of a rather upmarket outfitters and I'm pretty sure I remember them having a mixture of tweeds and evening dress wear in their windows. Being a little bit older I do remember walking along the sea front towards the end of WW2 and seeing the coils of barbed wire strung out along beach.
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Thanks Spiderboy,
That last bit about the beach really helps as my mother told me a story about being out for a walk with a boyfriend on the beach and being strafed by a German plane. Some friends told me that the story couldn't be true as the beaches were barricaded and mined. Sounds like I could be both right and wrong in my recollection of the story. Would have had to have happened in about 1943.
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I think you mean Austin Reed on the corner of Gervis Place and Westover Road. The other one you are thinking of was Daniel and Neal just before the Palace Court Hotel, that is where my mother had to buy my school uniform, very expensive it was too. ::)
Jebber
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I'm a fairly new boy to Bournemouth, but aren't the crosses in the vicinity of what is today Beale's?
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Sorry Redroger, you have lost your bearings. As you look at the centre of the picture Gervis Place, is the right hand fork, Old Christchurch Road the left, Beales is between the two, where they meet Hinton Road, close to St Peter's Church whose spire you can see in the picture.
Jebber
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Thanks Spiderboy,
That last bit about the beach really helps as my mother told me a story about being out for a walk with a boyfriend on the beach and being strafed by a German plane. Some friends told me that the story couldn't be true as the beaches were barricaded and mined. Sounds like I could be both right and wrong in my recollection of the story. Would have had to have happened in about 1943.
My Auntie told a similar story about walking along the promenade somewhere in that area with her young son and being machine gunned by a german plane. They had to dive to the ground.
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There was a big tip and run attack on 23 May 1943 (a Sunday mid-day) carried out by something like 26 Fw 190s of SKG (Schnellkampfgeschwader) 10.
Civilian casualties: 77 killed 45 seriously injured 150 slightly injured.
Service casualties: 31 killed 3 missing 38 wounded.
This unit also mounted a simultaneous attack on Hastings and Bexhill.
This was not the only strafing of Bournemouth, but the one that would no doubt linger in people's memories.
Dave
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Thanks. I did know about the May 23rd raid. Found out quite a bit about it. My dad spent the afternoon digging out the dead and wounded from the Metropole and my Mum helped out with a group of kids whose residence had been hit. That might have all been later on the same day as the strafing but I can't be sure. They both told me about their parts in that raid separately. He was newly arrived in Bournemouth that March while she had lived in the Boscombe are since before the war. She worked at Fuller's Tea Shop.
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Yes, you're right Beales is on the pedestrianised part.
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Austin Reed's were in the building on the corner of Westover Road in that building - further along used to be a well known furrier - Fox's. Yet further along used to be Forte's Cafe/Restaurant. Not sure how that will help.
Marion
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The highest cross at the top is indeed what would have been the then Palace Court Hotel — a magnificent Art Deco style building, still standing and operating as a hotel under a different name.
The second cross down is indeed the Gaumont cinema; currently the Odeon and under threat of closure; in fact, judging by the period of this shot, it was probably still called the Regent, and had not that long been built: it looks as if this is pre the 1943 air-raid. You can just make out the sort of 'cupola' on the top of the theatre's magnificent dome (visible level with and just to the left of the X)
The third, lower cross does indeed indicate the upper floors of the premises just at the start of Westover Road as it leaves Gervis Place. At one time, Austin Reed occupied part of this end of the building, however, I'm not sure if it would have been at the time of this photo. It is possible this might have been where Fuller's was — although one poster above said it was further along near the Gaumont, my own memory of it was more up this end, so if Fuller's is significant, perhaps that's what the cross was there for? I remember there was a rather tiny tea-room on the ground floor, and a slightly more spacious one on the first floor; my Gran used to take me there for tea and cakes, and I'd clamour to go upstairs, as there was a lovely view over the gardens; but she never wanted to climb the stairs, because of her bunions!
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It may help if you get one of the Alan Godfrey maps - there's 20% off on the My History website at the moment (until tomorrow)
I bought the Bournemouth ones for my brother's girlfriend for Christmas. We had lots of fun working out where the Wessex Way runs now and what houses were demolished for it to be built.
My brother has lived in Bournemouth for over 10 years now, so its like a second home to me.
Your stories are fascinating!