IT was the route where Boscombe’s first building sprang up in Victorian times.

Christchurch Road, the suburb’s main thoroughfare, is currently seeing an overhaul aimed at making its pedestrianised precinct more attractive and safe.

The area has changed a good deal over the decades.

Bournemouth Echo:

See all the pictures of Christchurch Road in Boscombe through the years in a gallery 

Boscombe’s first building, in 1878, was the Ragged Cat, built as a resting place on the journey from Christchurch to Poole.

It later became the Palmerston Arms Hotel, and that name still stands on the top of the building, which in recent years became the home of a Polish Delicatessen. The archway where horses and coaches once entered is still there.

Houses and shops began to spring up in the area from 1884 and Boscombe became a fashionable area for the wealthy.

The Royal Arcade was opened by the Duke of Connaught, third son of Queen Victoria, in 1893, while the Hippodrome music hall, now the O2 Academy, opened in 1900. A gargoyle devil still stands opposite the site, erected by the Lord’s Day Observance Society as a comment on the decision to open the music hall on Sundays.

Bournemouth Echo:

Some of the road’s most prominent buildings have seen their uses change over the years, including the Carlton cinema (now the Sir Percy Florence Shelley pub), the Savoy cinema (now Primark), the main library (now WHSmith) and the post office (now Sainsbury’s).

But the biggest upheaval in the road’s history was surely the decision in the 1980s to pedestrianise much of Christchurch Road.

Bournemouth Echo:

The issue had been under discussion for some years by February 1982, when Dorset County Council agreed on a plan. It meant closing the road to traffic between Palmerston Road and Ashley Road, as well as a short section at northern end of Sea Road.

“The work involves a large number of new traffic schemes, road widening, some demolition and improvements,” the Echo reported.

George Vizard, county surveyor, told the meeting: “The scheme will aid the redevelopment of Boscombe and help realise the potential of the area. This area will go downhill if we don’t do something about it.”

The final decision was up to Bournemouth council, which agreed with the pedestrianisation plan, together with a new link road to the north of the main road to take the displaced traffic.

The scheme attracted a great deal of opposition during a public consultation, but the council pressed ahead. Adopting the scheme would strengthen the council’s hand against plans for a “southern bypass” along Wentworth and Beechwood Avenues, the Echo reported.

Bournemouth approved an amended version of what was often called a “walkabout scheme” in May 1982.

That September, with the debate continuing, there was warning that one developer had already pulled out of the scheme and enthusiasm was waning.

In March 1983, an inquiry was held at Bournemouth Town Hall into public objections to the plans.

Chartered surveyor Malcolm Brown, who lived in the area, said the scheme could be postponed “almost indefinitely” if the council did not drop its requirement for a large contribution from developers. The postponement would mean local properties would fall victim to “planning blight”.

“If the council wanted the development to start within 10 years, they must be flexible, allow the prospective developer a sufficient commercial element in his scheme and use compulsory purchase if necessary,” he told the inquiry.

The scheme was all set go ahead after the inquiry. In 1986, traders were officially notified of the pedestrianisation plans. But Bournemouth council said it was only a formal notification asking for traders’ reactions and the development was still some years away.

Bournemouth Echo:

By 1990, work was well under way on the scheme, which would deliver a big new retail development, the Sovereign Centre.

But there was still controversy ahead thanks to the planned work of public art. That April, the Echo reported that “Councillors are splashing out £70,000 on an obscure new fountain for Boscombe”.

The fountain – consisting of blocks of Portland Stone arranged in an S-shape – was the centrepiece to the £850,000 scheme, the Echo said.

Bournemouth Echo:

Some on the council were already decrying it. Cllr Arthur Smith said: “We will have years to regret this. I can just see the headlines ‘Councillors have water on the brain’.”

And Cllr Lionel Bennett warned: “It will be ridiculed throughout the town.”

But defenders included Cllr Gordon Anstee, who said: “It’s just a modern piece of work – it’s 1990, not 1890.”

In August, the mayor and mayoress, Cllr Wycliffe and Kathy Coe, were shown around the area and the nearly completed Sovereign Centre.

The opening of the Sovereign Centre proved to be one of the key events in the retailing life of the area, but there were to be challenges ahead – not least the departure of the Sovereign Centre’s supermarket, Safeway, and that of Marks and Spencer following the opening of Castlepoint.

Bournemouth Echo:

But Christchurch Road – whose controversial fountain disappeared five years ago –remains one of Bournemouth’s busiest thoroughfares.

And the arrival last year of a Tardis-style police box, used as a point of contact with Dorset Police, showed that the area was looking to the future as well as.