After the last set on Weymouth, this week's pictures travel 30 miles east and 11 years back in time to Bournemouth in June 1997. Although it was a nice summer's day, the Hampshire resort was not exactly lively. There weren't many people on the beach, and they were mostly of a certain age. Indeed, in front of the pier, there was a man who called himself The Age Guesser. You gave him 50p and, without him seeing, wrote your age on a piece of paper. He would then "guess" it - if he was wrong (within a year either way) you won a prize. Not the quickest way to riches, but he seemed happy enough. Bournemouth has always had that sort of comfy sedate image and, apart from a few lairy teenagers in the park, there was little to be seen that day in 1997 to dispel it. Since then, reportedly, the place has had a bit of a youth makeover and is not as it was a decade ago. It'll never be Brighton (too unmetropolitan and far from London) but Bournemouth is obviously not stuffy any more. Good for Bournemouth, no doubt, but still rather a shame. If everywhere became groovy, life would be an unending hell of grooviness. We need places that are unchanging, comfy and, yes, even stuffy. Just so long as we don't have to live in them all the time !

The Age Guesser and his stall in front of Bournemouth Pier (image 1113-5)

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