Bugger Bournemouth

Wednesday, December 29th., London.

Bournemouth yesterday.

Bournemouth Pier in 1909

I shall never forget the appalling sensation of  turmoil and jolly, rough manners I had during lunch at the Hydro. A huge place. Crammed dining room. Strident orchestra (women), rushing waiters of both sexes. Heaps of food but no service. Patron et patronne very good-natured. The whole crowd out for a lark, and enjoying the infernal vulgar din. A grand fancy dress ball the night before. What must it have been like?
After seeing this and the town I decided absolutely against Bournemouth. It was symbolic that I couldn't even get China tea there. Six hours in train. I got back to the hotel at 7.30.
I had spent a day and a pound in discovering that Bournemouth was impossible.

The Durley Dean Hotel, Bournemouth Hydro and Durley Gardens were erected in 1904. Over the next ten years it was variously known as the Durley Dean Mansions Hotel and Hydro, and Durley Dean Hydro, eventually becoming the Durley Dean Hotel. The 1913 Bournemouth Guide describes it as being "luxuriously furnished on the bracing West Cliff, the healthiest position in Bournemouth with farm produce supplied by its own farm and having the most up-to-date hydro in the South of England offering Turkish, Russian and sea water swimming baths. There are two hundred rooms, and electric passenger lift, and the hydro motorbus will meet any train on receipt of a postcard."