The Bournemouth IMAX– on it’s way?

Who can forget the all pervasive sounds of disgruntlement that seeped into your car as you drove past Bournemouth Pier – back in the years that followed the erection of the IMAX cinema. What an erection it was.
For some reason or another the planning office had agreed to give planning permission for what appeared to be an enormous metal box next door to the pier. After construction it was clear that it deprived everyone approaching the sea front of half of the view of the Solent.
An incredible act of foolishness on some councillor’s part, I’m sure. Never mind though, as the good news is the wheels are in motion for the building to be pulled down. In fact once can read here that there is hope just around the corner: Council Starts Compulsory Purchase Order.
So, we can all breath a sigh of relief that we will, once more, benefit from an unabridged version of the Bournemouth front sea-view (sans IMAX metal box), possibly as soon as early next year.
Now – here’s the tricky part. Most of you, like me, will probably have boycotted the thing out of some misguided act of solidarity with the now seemingly ‘deceased’ (or, at least, some what curtailed) sea view. Fair enough. Since I heard the news that the building may be on it’s way out, however, I decided to pay it a visit – as a sort of ‘so long and thanks for all the fish’.
I (and a good friend) climbed the stairs within the glass front entrance porch, past the ‘Wacky Warehouse’ family restaurant, to where civilised individuals (such as ourselves) could stop for a beer or a bottle of wine. Out onto the balcony we strode, slightly defiant – attempting to keep our ‘ooohs and ahhs’ to ourselves as the view revealed itself. …and, in the words of a lesser known sketch from the 1970’s, inwardly we cried, “Oh Lord, this is fantastic, this is terrific”.
The view was as beautiful as ever, it had even been improved from ground level as the screams of playful families had been left behind; all was serene on the azure horizon. Truly the view is breath taking and being able to appreciate it with some nibbles and a bottle or two of Merlot is something else.
So, the good news is we will get it back before long.  The bad news is we lose a wonderful drinking balcony to enjoy as the sun goes down. It’s a load off my mind, I can tell you, as I’ve been keeping it secret for these last six months, partly as I didn’t want to admit that it was so good and partly so that I could appreciate it in relative privacy. You may only have three months left of it so go and have a seat and a large glass.
The replacement? I hear that a 40 foot homage to Peter Andre is on it’s way – although I hear lots of things, so that may mean nothing.

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