Pictured here in October 21st 1998 as the top of the clock is being removed to make way for pedestrianisation of the Square as part of a £1.9million improvement scheme which would include the building of a cafe with a camera Obscura on the first floor – and a clock on the roof.
Parts of the clock are said to survive on top of the current Obscura Cafe, but it is not entirely clear which parts.
And the distinctive casing around the original clock turns out to have been sold because no museums were interested in it.
The clock originally stood on the roof of a tram shelter built in the centre of the Square in 1925. The clock itself was given to the town by Captain HB Norton, a magistrate and former councillor.
The shelter became derelict after trams were withdrawn in favour of trolleybuses in 1936. It was demolished in 1947, and Captain Norton’s clock was instead installed on the top of a distinctive new tower, surrounded by flower beds at the centre of a traffic roundabout.
As early as 1972, people claimed that the clock tower seemed to be listing. Town Hall officials insisted it was an optical illusion, but when trees and bushes around the tower were cleared in 1992, it was revealed that Bournemouth really did have its own leaning tower.
Go online to see more photos of the Bournemouth Square clock https://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/13893206.pictures-what-really-happened-to-bournemouth-squares-leaning-clock-tower/#gallery0
Photo: Daily Echo
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