Fortitudo is bringing forward plans for the regeneration and development of a key site in central Bournemouth which includes the South Western House building on Fir Vale Road and the multi-story car park on Glen Fern Road.

Fortitudo is developing an exciting vision for this site which will see a new mixed-use development delivering much-needed new homes, a 120-bed hotel, restaurants, state-of-the-art commercial and leisure space, a new multi-storey carpark, all framed within new landscaped surroundings.

We are working on our plans currently and have arranged a public information and consultation event to enable local residents and stakeholders to view and comment on the proposals, prior to the submission of a planning application in due course.

This website will be updated as additional information on the plans is released and all consultation materials will also be added to this website. We welcome your feedback, so please complete our online feedback form. If you have any questions or would prefer to contact us directly with your feedback, you can contact the team by telephone, email or post.

If you would like to be kept updated as the project progresses, please register with us.

The site, a key central part of Bournemouth town centre and close to one of the commercial thorough fairs, is set within a hollow between Richmond Hill and Bath Hill, located just off Old Christchurch Road.

The site itself which has been voted one of the ugliest buildings in Britain previously (TO SOURCE), has two frontages, and includes South Western House on Fir Vale Road and the multi-story car park on Glen Fern Road.

South Western House largely redundant since HM Revenue and Customs relocated during the 1990’s, still houses the Cameo and Vinyl nightclubs on the ground floor. Over the years, as office needs and requirements have changed in terms of look and layout, this style of building has fallen out of favour. As a result, this four-storey building has become redundant and fallen into a state of disrepair, detracting visually from the local area, as can be seen from these images.

Much of the site which fronts on to Glen Fern Road is still in active use, including the multi-storey car park, the student housing, the various leisure uses and the café. Fortitudo is currently in talks with many of the existing users, looking at the opportunity for these users to form part of the new developed site.

Public Engagement Event

As part of our Consultation and engagement process for the redevelopment of the adjoining site, Fortitudo Property has arranged a public information and consultation event to enable local residents and stakeholders to view, discuss and comment on the draft proposals, prior to the submission of a planning application in due course.

The event will take place on:

Wednesday 8th September
between 3pm and 7.30pm at the
Russell Cotes Museum, East Cliff Promenade, Bournemouth, BH1 3AA

Members of the project team will be on hand to talk you through the plans and answer any questions you might have. Feedback forms will be available for you to leave your comments which will then be collated and reviewed prior to submitting a planning application in due course.

We are currently preparing our plans prior to our public information and consultation event on Wednesday 8th September at the Russell Cotes Museum. The exhibition boards are available to download here.

It is important to stress that our proposals are still evolving and your feed-back will influence the form and content of any planning application.

However, in formulating the concept design we have been mindful of:

• the planning history
• site opportunities and constraints (including flood risk)
• the character of the surrounding area
• heritage assets
• national and local planning policies
• viability considerations

Design

The architecture is defined by the local area, both in terms of materials and form. Portland stone transcends both the contemporary and traditional vernacular elements of the design. The towers irregular Portland stone parapet balconies seek to reflect Dorset’s rugged coastline cliffs and geologically rich landscape, while the Fir Vale Road frontage adopts Bournemouth’s historic love of Italian renaissance inspired design of the 1920’s & 30’s. Our aim is to create a building that is synonymous with Bournemouth and a bespoke reflection of the town for the 21st century.

A selection of our concept drawings are below, this presents a understanding of our proposals but do come to our consultation event, talk to us and see our latest elevations: