About Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole
Families
From Westbourne to Southbourne, from Talbot Woods via Charminster, to Queens Park and Littledown, there is a wide and varied selection of house types – modern or period, detached or semi-detached, modernised or requiring refurbishment. Appropriately, the range in prices, numbers of bedrooms, garden sizes and styles of architecture also varies and there is a distinctly different feel to the surrounding communities.
And then there is probably the most influential factor in choosing a home beyond price: local school provision. In the state sector, Bournemouth offers both primary (28) and secondary (10) school education in abundance plus two special needs schools. Whether you are looking for state or fee-paying provision, the performance of the schools has been consistently good almost wherever you look.
If you want to keep fit, there is ample scope for you and your children – a challenging golf course and a health club at Meyrick Park, a championship golf course in nearby Parkstone, and a very rare championship municipal golf course at Queens Park (the site of several Severiano Ballesteros adventures). With New Forest situated close-by, there are many opportunities for outdoors activity, including walking, mountain biking and trekking. In Poole Harbour and Christchurch, there are a number of sailing clubs, kite-boarding and many other beach and sea activities.
From 2009 onwards, the new Surf Reef will be in operation. The size of a football pitch, the artificial world circuit specification surf reef, to be constructed on Boscombe Seafront just to the east of Boscombe Pier, will be Europe's first and one of only 4 world-wide. It is attracting a lot of envious glances from those who would traditionally have had to go much further afield for their sport.
As for culture, there is the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra visiting theatre groups, pop music concerts at the Bournemouth International Centre, reputedly more pubs and clubs per capita than any other UK town, cinemas and a wealth of restaurants.