Central Gardens are the middle section of Bournemouth's well-known chain of Victorian pleasure gardens, the green corridor that tracks the Bourne stream from the Lower Gardens on the seafront, through the town centre and up towards the Upper Gardens and Coy Pond at the edge of Westbourne. Created over what was once a marshy valley, they are among the oldest and most lasting elements of the resort's original Victorian plan.
History
Work to turn the Bourne valley into ornamental gardens started in the 1840s, when the architect Decimus Burton advised on the layout of the pleasure grounds while Bournemouth was growing from a handful of villas into a fashionable health resort. The present form of the Central and Lower Gardens dates from a design competition in 1872, won by Philip Henry Tree, with the land passing to the council the year after. In 1898 the firm of Pulham and Son lined the banks of the Bourne stream with stonework, and that work still defines the watercourse today.
What to see & do
The most prominent feature is Bournemouth's war memorial, unveiled on 8 November 1922, designed by the architect E.A. Shervey with sculpture by W.A. Hoare, and dedicated to residents killed in the First World War and later conflicts. Close by, the pergola built over the bridge in 1990 for the centenary of the Borough of Bournemouth incorporates ironwork rescued from a Victorian veranda, a neat link between the gardens' 19th- and 20th-century stories. Elsewhere there are tennis courts for hire and a small children's play area, set among the lawns, mature trees and flowerbeds that run the full length of the valley.
Visiting
Open access and free to enter, the Central Gardens are easy to fit into a walk between the town centre and the sea. The Bourne Valley Greenway path passes through them, so they can be explored on foot or by bike as part of a longer route out to Westbourne and Coy Pond. Nothing is charged for entry; the one cost inside the gardens is booking a tennis court.
Downstream are the Lower Gardens, with their bandstand and mini-golf on the way to the pier, and upstream the Upper Gardens carry the valley walk on towards Westbourne. This is a pleasant, quiet part of the wider gardens network; find more ideas in our guide to things to do in Bournemouth.
