Seafield Gardens is a quiet, well-kept park in Southbourne, tucked just inland from the clifftop and beaches on Bournemouth's eastern side. It's a working local park rather than a tourist attraction, somewhere residents come to bowl, play tennis, walk the dog or let the kids loose in the play area, but its history and its Grade II listed water tower make it worth a detour if you're exploring Southbourne.
From turf common to formal park
The gardens began life as a common where locals cut turf for fuel, before Bournemouth Council purchased the site in 1906. A pavilion followed in 1911, and the grounds were laid out as a formal park in 1929, eventually growing to two bowling greens and fourteen tennis courts by 1936, a scale that says a lot about how seriously Edwardian and interwar Bournemouth took its parks. Some of those courts were converted to hard surfaces and a children's playground in 1956, giving the gardens the mix of facilities they still have today.
The water tower and the Five Parks
The park's standout feature is its water tower, built in 1898 to supply drinking water to Southbourne-on-sea after the pumping station at Iford failed, it's privately owned but listed Grade II, and still visible above the trees. Like Kings Park and Redhill Common, Seafield Gardens is held in trust under The Five Parks, Bournemouth charity, one of five green spaces set aside for public recreation more than a century ago and still free to enter today.
There's no car park on site, so access is on foot from Seafield Road, Guildhall Road, Tuckton Road or Ken Road. Explore more of the area in our guide to things to do in Bournemouth.
