Work on Bournemouth's tallest building to begin next year

Holland House in Oxford Road, Lansdowne, will be torn down before work can start on a new 29-storey apartment block begins in April 2024. 

Designed by Jo Cowen Architects, Oxford Gardens will comprise of 487 rental homes. 

Nick Hornby, development director at Marchmont Development Management, said: “We are very pleased to have secured consent for our plans to regenerate Holland House.  

“We are aware of the growing need for high-quality housing for young professionals in Bournemouth and we have worked very hard to design a development that will meet this local need. 

“We look forward to commencing works on site early next year.” 

The homes are aimed at young professionals and graduates, according to the developers, and will come with co-working space, a retail unit, a café and a new public square. 

Marchmont Development Management, which also built Mercury House in the town centre, has said it will engage with Bournemouth residents during the construction phase of the project.

Oxford Gardens will consist of 78 studios, 211 one-bed, 148 two-bed and 37 three-bed flats and will bring double the new homes built in Bournemouth in 2021/22. 

Once finished, it will overtake nearby The Helm in Holdenhurst Road, which stands at just 19 floors, as the tallest building in Bournemouth. 

Comparatively, Oxford Gardens will be roughly a third of the height of western Europe’s tallest building The Shard which stands at 95 storeys tall. 

New York’s Empire State Building, meanwhile, is 102-storeys high – although the antenna does add an extra 200 feet.