A new chapter at Pars House is about to begin as Foxes Residential Lettings takes over one of Bournemouth's most distinctive buildings. After enjoying life as a chemists and a bank, this familiar building on the junction of Poole Hill and Norwich Road it is about to become Foxes Residential Lettings.

Known for years as Pars Corner for more than a century it was home to Par & Co the Chemists. Although it is classified as a listed Victoria building, it was built around fixtures and fittings that dated from the regency era and were bought from a chemists shop in London.

Apart from very minor alterations, the exterior has not changed since the 1870s. When it finally closed in 1979, Pars could boast that it had been open seven days a week for 103 years. It left behind 133 volumes of ledgers cataloguing every prescription dispensed from the building, close to a million in all. These were donated to the museum at Bliss Hill, Ironbridge.

Now taken over by Foxes Residential Lettings, established for more than 10 years, and who with the Property Management Department manage more than 4,000 flats and houses, making them one of the largest dedicated lettings and property management companies in the area.Foxes' roots stem back to 1868 when the original Fox & Sons was founded.

Foxes' move to Poole Hill was a result of a management buy-out of the property management business from Fox & Sons in 1996. The lettings department has moved to Pars House to deal with the current demand from prospective tenants and are looking to expand their portfolio in all areas of Bournemouth and Poole.

In order to allow Foxes to service its clients needs outside of Bournemouth town centre "through the net" was created. The concept of "through the net" means agents who have previously not been able to offer lettings as a service are able to do so with the assistance of Foxes as a professional letting agent.

Local marketing is carried out through the net agent and once a tenant is secured the management of the tenancy is carried out by Foxes. Current "through the net" agents are Slades of Winton and Westbourne and Dixon Kelley of West Moors. Foxes are currently looking for more agents in the area.

To assist with this and to improve the service that it currently supplies to landlords and tenants, Foxes have introduced one of the most comprehensive letting software systems on the market. Gemini was developed over the course of 12 years and is able to complete a multitude of administrative tasks, allowing staff to spend more time attending to clients' needs.

"Moving to Pars House is going to be a beneficial move for us and our clients. We will have a greater presence in the area. The office is, without doubt, in a great location," said a spokesman.

"If you want a better service, then we would be delighted to advise you on all aspects of letting."