Southbourne is a suburb of Bournemouth in the English county of Dorset. It is the most easterly part of the Borough of Bournemouth, situated between Boscombe and Christchurch. The area was previously known as Stourfield.
There are two car parks next to the beach: Warren Edge holds 192 cars, five for disabled use, Postcode BH6 4BE. Southbourne Cross Roads holds 78 cars, two for disabled use, Postcode BH6 3NH. The number 1c Yellow Bus (from Poole to Bournemouth Square to Christchurch) stops about ten minutes walk away from the beach. It runs generally every 20 minutes in summer.
Strictly Southbourne refers to the area near the coast; areas further inland are West Southbourne, Tuckton and Wick. Around 1766, Edmund Bott had a Georgian mansion built to the east of Pokesdown village, commanding views of Christchurch Harbour and he named it Stourfield House. One of the most celebrated inhabitants of Stourfield House was Mary Eleanor Bowes, Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne. Stourfield House later became a care home, looking after servicemen who had been injured in the Great War. Today only the front steps survive, leading to a block of flats in Douglas Mews, and marked by a Blue Plaque.
Southbourne also had a short-lived pier. It was constructed in 1888 at a cost of £4,000 and was 300 feet long. There were regular boat-trips between the pier at Southbourne and the pier at Bournemouth. Unfortunately the pier, promenade and nearby sea wall built by Dr.Compton ( to rival the resort at Bournemouth ) were heavily damaged by storms in December 1900 and January 1901. A buyer for the pier was unable to be found and it was eventually demolished in 1909 due to concerns about public safety.
The main area of Southbourne is Southbourne Grove, a long shopping street that has some unique and individual shops rather than high street chain shops. Another local centre is Southbourne Crossroads, which is further east towards Hengistbury Head. Seafield Gardens is a public open space which has been awarded a Green Flag Award since 2001; it offers various outdoor facilities, including bowls and tennis. It also features a water tower. Between the cliff top coastal road and the promenade and beach is the Fisherman's Walk Cliff Railway, a funicular railway; this provides very easy access to Southbourne's Blue Flag beach, from which it is possible to reach the beaches at Boscombe and Bournemouth. Southbourne is still a busy area for tourists keen to escape the busier areas of Bournemouth town centre, although the number of guest houses in the area has declined in recent years. The easternmost part of the area is called Hengistbury Head.
The River Stour flows out along Tuckton and into the English Channel. The River Stour is a 60.5 mile ( 97 km ) long river which flows through Wiltshire and Dorset in southern England, and drains into the English Channel. It is sometimes called the Dorset Stour to distinguish it from rivers of the same name. The source of the river is at Stourhead, in Wiltshire, where it forms a series of artificial lakes which are part of the Stourhead estate owned by the National Trust. It flows south into Dorset through the Blackmore Vale and the towns of Gillingham and Sturminster Newton. At Marnhull the Stour is joined by the River Cale and then (two miles downstream) by the River Lydden. At Blandford Forum the river breaks through the chalk ridge of the Dorset Downs, and from there flows south east into the heathland's of south east Dorset. At Wimborne Minster it is joined by the River Allen, and at its estuary at Christchurch it is joined by the River Avon before it flows through the harbour into the English Channel. The Stour Valley Way is a designated long distance footpath that follows almost all the course of the river.
