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Wimborne Road, BOURNEMOUTH, BH10 7AW

This car dealership is located on a site that was formerly a petrol station. It is close to the junction with Ashridge Avenue.

As the sign says in smaller print, actually in Northbourne. Doesn't seem to have a web presence, but according to the sign as well as services, there are groups for healing, women, wives, parents & toddlers, & guides.

Emergency gas main works began here on 11 April, for around three weeks according to the sign but, today, they are even overrunning the suggested 10 weeks written by some wag below the original figure. This is just one of numerous gas-related works that have required traffic lights or even road closures around Bournemouth in the last few months. The temporary traffic lights are a particular nuisance on this busy route because there is a signal-controlled junction in close proximity beyond.

Forlorn-looking closed post office in Northbourne, at the junction of Wimborne Road & Ashridge Avenue; closed 29th Oct 2008. For a list of closures in Dorset, see http://www.westbournemouthukip.com/docs/Dorset%20Post%20Office%20closures.pdf

Northbourne's post office is in Ashridge Parade, Wimborne Road, and is one of two Bournemouth branches due for closure in 2008. With 2,500 offices closing nationally this year, that figure may imply that Bournemouth has got off lightly, but the town was particularly badly hit in the 2004 closures, with a dozen out of around 36 being axed at that time – thus, the town has few branches that could now be deemed surplus to requirements. With Dorset's being the 36th of the 42 regional closure plans to be announced, with a six-week consultation period that started on July 15, we can see from previously completed plans that only in the extreme minority of cases is a U-turn likely and the branch retained. The few that have been saved thus far have been where the Post Office Ltd. has conceded a big misjudgement, or where there are future building plans in the area, or adverse changes to buses serving alternative branches, of which the Post Office had been previously unaware. Therefore, I think the demise of this branch will probably turn out to be confirmed in a few months' time. UPDATE: and indeed it was thus. The branch closed on 30 October 2008, while the nearest alternative at Redhill Drive put banners into its window display saying "Welcome to Redhill Drive Post Office" – a nice touch for their new customers.

This postbox is outside Image It has on its top the remains of a direction sign pointing to the post office, such as the one at Image

Looking up this smart tree-lined roads from Wimborne Road. It forms a kind of three-pronged fork layout with neighbouring Ashridge Avenue and Pinecliffe Avenue, with Hogue Avenue joining the three of them at the top end. I'm therefore not sure why this one should be named Ferncroft Road rather than Ferncroft Avenue, but there it is. The sign is the standard Bournemouth nameplate from the 1980s, affixed with tubular steel which protrudes at each side. This is photo no.141 of a series of 453 in my coronavirus lockdown walking project: See https://www.geograph.org.uk/article/My-2020-Coronavirus-Lockdown-walking-project for the complete set of photos.

Looking across the main Wimborne Road to this tyre service centre, at no.1469 Wimborne Road, which was established in 1966. There is no official boundary between Kinson and Northbourne, but Kinson is really a little bit west of here.

After coincidentally receiving nails in two tyres, my car is jacked up on the forecourt of Image and awaits roadworthiness. In the distance is Image

Looking down this row of detached houses from the top end of Ashridge Avenue, the pavement separated from the road by a hedge, interrupted at each driveway. The sign is of a design that became prevalent in Bournemouth around 1990 and was in use for most of that decade. Many are starting to look a bit shabby now, such as this one with peeling white section, while the original blue border has completely gone (see Image for a better example – also, the name might look better more broadly spaces on two lines like at Aberdare Road, or on the narrower version of the same sign such as at Image]). This is photo no.18 of a series of 451 in my coronavirus lockdown walking project: See https://www.geograph.org.uk/article/My-2020-Coronavirus-Lockdown-walking-project for the complete set of photos.