East Cliff

East Cliff is one of Bournemouth's most distinctive seafront areas, rising sharply above the sandy beach between the town's pier and Boscombe. The cliffs, formed from soft Eocene sands and clays, give Bournemouth its characteristic profile and provide sweeping views across Poole Bay towards the Isle of Wight on clear days. A network of zig-zag paths and a Victorian funicular cliff lift connect the clifftop to the promenade and beach below.

The area developed in the late nineteenth century as Bournemouth grew from a small seaside settlement into a fashionable resort. Grand villas, hotels and ornamental gardens still line the clifftop streets, reflecting the resort's Victorian and Edwardian heyday. The Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum, set in a flamboyant clifftop house built for a former mayor, is one of the area's best-known landmarks.

Visitors come to walk the clifftop paths, take in the panorama from viewpoints near the bandstand, or descend to the wide sandy beach for swimming and watersports. The promenade below stretches for several miles, linking the East Cliff with the pier, Boscombe and the wider Jurassic Coast beyond.