A BOARD game café, a martial arts club and a chiropractic clinic are among businesses which have opened in a newly refurbished row in Boscombe.

The original block in Christchurch Road was completely pulled down and rebuilt with large retail units at street level by DWP Housing Partnership, and it is now fully occupied.

The £4.5 million development, which took a year to complete, also includes 51 flats which were snapped up earlier in the year.

Steve Wells from DWP Housing Partnership said: “Although we are well known as a residential landlord we have a growing commercial element to the business.

“When we decided to rebuild this block we wanted to include commercial units which were large and fit for purpose.

“Every one of them is now occupied and doing well. There is a lot of footfall in the area and these businesspeople are taking advantage of it.

“We have for some years actively helped support new and small businesses where we are able.

“These businesses on Christchurch Road are a diverse collection but together they are boosting the local economy.

“We are able to offer highly competitive rents because we have committed to the block for the long term.”

The new tenants are Coffee and Dice café which is also licensed and contains a host of board games for customers, the Back Pain Centre which provides chiropractic services, physiotherapy, sports therapy and remedial massage, GB Academy of Martial Arts which contains a dojo, Guasti and Co, a gift shop selling many items including cosmetics, Renovatio Bikes which sells and repairs bicycles, and Boutique Hair and Beauty, a large salon.

Coffee and Dice opened earlier this year, run by friends and board game enthusiasts Marc Shotter and Jessica Hancock, who managed to raise £10,000 for custom-made gaming tables on Kickstarter.

With seating for about 60 people, individuals and groups can play as many games as they like, for as long as they like, for £4.

Games include classics such as Boggle, Cluedo, Connect 4, dominoes, Kerplunk, Monopoly and Scrabble.