To think Bournemouth might be a s***hole?

[SoOriginal]

Sorry! Posted in chat but need opinions fast and hoping for some traffic 🙏

Help. We’re moving for husbands work and found a place we like in Lilliput Poole (near bournmouth but I know no technically Bournmouth). Everything seemed fine until I started to read threads on mumsnet and found some less than favourable reviews!

Apparently lots of homelessness, lots of violent crime, on the other hand people say is all elderly residents and boring… Is Lilliput a bad area, or is it just the proximity to Poole centre / Bournemouth centre that people think is bad? I’m so confused, thinking of pulling out or moving to surrounding areas. I live about 200 miles from the location and don’t know much about it.
If you know the area what are your thoughts please?

YABU - it’s nice, don’t worry
YANBU - it’s really not very nice. Don’t buy!

As PPs have said Liliput is definitely a 'nice/posh' area, and I would think of it as Poole really.

Bournemouth has got worse over the last 10 years, the rise in knife crime / fights in general in particular are worrying, but are generally in and around Bournemouth itself.

My DC do go there, but if they go to the beach they mainly go west of Bournemouth to Branksome Chine & Sandbanks (or east to Southbourne & Hengistbury Head) to essentially avoid the crowds by the pier.

.... oh and goes without saying that the traffic is so horrendous, massive traffic jams are just normal now - Sunday night queue heading out of town normally stacks from across the forest at Pickets Postback into town

Slight de rail of thread but oh so interesting.

My DB got clean and sober in Bournemouth, 8 years ago.

He left to come back to Herts a year ago as now has a young family and wanted to be near us. Still attends AA/NA 12 step program.

He has ALWAYS said, Bournemouth is the best place to get clean and sober but the easiest place to relapse.

Public transport is pretty crap also, so you need to drive but then the traffic is hell

Bournemouth town centre is a shithole. Lived here most of my life. I now live 5 miles from the centre and it’s lovely and open and trees and parks. We go into town centre not that often. Over priced parking. Beggars. Drugs. Gangs of migrants put up in hotels. Teens roaming. It started to go downhill a while ago but Covid finished it off. Not a safe place to be after dark. I remember the days I could walk down from Westbourne to the centre without a care in the world. I won’t let my teen walk anywhere after dark and certainly not through the gardens from dusk. Shops are leaving. Vape shops and coffee shops mostly. Big department stores all gone. I used to waste a whole day shopping in town. Now we go to Southampton to clothes shop.

however Lilliput is not Bournemouth so don’t worry. Just live at least 5 miles from the centre if want a better time is my advice

i would never move closer to the town again.

and it’s just so so sad what my town has become

I concur. We always go to West Quay or Castlepoint for shopping. Never ever Bournemouth town centre. The shops are shit now.

Sandbanks is my favourite uk holiday place, weekend in traffic is very bad. Very envious of you

I grew up in Bournemouth and agree with @NeverForgetYourDreams and @LuckysDadsHat . It used to be a lovely town centre but sadly not now. There are many great areas nearby, though.
One advantage to living in a holiday town is if you want to go out of town for the day you are travelling in the opposite direction to the day trippers 😁

Bournemouth is ok - I grew up there and now live in Newcastle but still have family there and we have holidays down there. It has changed a lot but it's no worse than other places that I've lived. Like almost every major town in the country, it has good people and not so good people - nice parts and not so nice parts.

Lilliput is a lovely place to live and you’re close to Ashley Cross, lots of nice cafes and pubs etc.
Poole will be your closest town. The centre is pretty rough but has managed to hold on to lots of the main shops H and M, Next etc.
If you get the right time, The Old Town/poole quay can be very nice.
You will be very close to the chain ferry to get you to the beautiful Studland/Purbecks and while, in the summer the traffic is bad, you will have the luxury of off season/early morning/evening trips to the beach.
You can cycle or walk to the beach, no problem at all and there is the beautiful Evening Hill, which looks out over the harbour, for fish and chips.
Lilliput School is fab.
We can’t afford to live in Lilliput but I definitely think about it.
I don’t work for the Lilliput appreciation society, I promise.
I would say that Bournemouth is a bit of a shit hole, such a shame but I hardly go that way. It can be nice when the Art by the Sea or the ice skating in the gardens is on. Wimborne isn’t far away as a pretty town to visit.
So there you go, I do love living down this way, there are some dodgy areas but I think the sea and all its activities (paddle boarding, sailing, windsurfing, kyacking etc, all very accessible) make up for the shit bits.