Sandbanks
Encyclopedia
Peninsula
A peninsula is a piece of land that is bordered by water on three sides but connected to mainland. In many Germanic and Celtic languages and also in Baltic, Slavic and Hungarian, peninsulas are called "half-islands"....
or spit
Spit (landform)
A spit or sandspit is a deposition landform found off coasts. At one end, spits connect to land, and extend into the sea. A spit is a type of bar or beach that develops where a re-entrant occurs, such as at cove's headlands, by the process of longshore drift...
(1 sq km or 0.39 sq mi) crossing the mouth of Poole Harbour
Poole Harbour
Poole Harbour is a large natural harbour in Dorset, southern England, with the town of Poole on its shores. The harbour is a drowned valley formed at the end of the last ice age and is the estuary of several rivers, the largest being the Frome. The harbour has a long history of human settlement...
on the English Channel
English Channel
The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...
coast at Poole
Poole
Poole is a large coastal town and seaport in the county of Dorset, on the south coast of England. The town is east of Dorchester, and Bournemouth adjoins Poole to the east. The Borough of Poole was made a unitary authority in 1997, gaining administrative independence from Dorset County Council...
in Dorset
Dorset
Dorset , is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town is Dorchester which is situated in the south. The Hampshire towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch joined the county with the reorganisation of local government in 1974...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. It is well-known for the highly regarded Sandbanks Beach and property value; Sandbanks has, by area, the fourth highest land value
Real estate appraisal
Real estate appraisal, property valuation or land valuation is the process of valuing real property. The value usually sought is the property's Market Value. Appraisals are needed because compared to, say, corporate stock, real estate transactions occur very infrequently...
in the world. The Sandbanks and Canford Cliffs
Canford Cliffs
Canford Cliffs is an affluent suburb of Poole in Dorset, England. The neighbourhood lies on the English Channel coast midway between Poole and Bournemouth...
Coastline area has been dubbed as "Britain's Palm Beach
Palm Beach, Florida
The Town of Palm Beach is an incorporated town in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. The Intracoastal Waterway separates it from the neighboring cities of West Palm Beach and Lake Worth...
" by the national media.
Sandbanks is connected to Studland
Studland
Studland is a small village on the Isle of Purbeck in the English county of Dorset. It is famous for its beaches and nature reserve. In 2001 Studland had a population of 480, the lowest in 50 years...
by a chain ferry
Cable ferry
A cable ferry is guided and in many cases propelled across a river or other larger body of water by cables connected to both shores. They are also called chain ferries, floating bridges, or punts....
, the Sandbanks Ferry
Sandbanks Ferry
Sandbanks Ferry is a vehicular chain ferry which crosses the entrance of Poole Harbour in the English county of Dorset. The route runs from Sandbanks to Studland and in doing so connects the coastal parts of the towns of Bournemouth and Poole with Swanage and the Isle of Purbeck...
, which runs across the mouth of the harbour. The Sandbanks area of Poole Harbour (known as North Haven Lake) is widely used for water sports and by light marina craft. The north side is home to the Southern Headquarters of the Royal Yachting Association
Royal Yachting Association
The Royal Yachting Association is the national governing body for certain watersports in the United Kingdom. Activities it covers include:* Sailing* Windsurfing* Motor cruising* Sportsboats* Personal watercraft* Powerboat racing...
and an international sailing school.
There are exclusive homes both on Sandbanks and across the immediate region, stretching east from the Harbour to The Avenue (the eastern boundary of Poole). The adjacent areas of Lilliput
Lilliput, Poole
Lilliput is a district of Poole, Dorset. It borders on Lower Parkstone, Whitecliff, Canford Cliffs, and Sandbanks, and has a shoreline within Poole Harbour. Lilliput also has a sub area called Salterns Marina, which has views of Sandbanks, Brownsea Island, and in the distance, Whitecliff...
, Branksome Park
Branksome Park
Branksome Park is a suburb of Poole in Dorset, which adjoins Branksome, Dorset. The area covers approximately , mostly occupied by housing, and includes Branksome Chine which leads to the award-winning blue-flagged beaches of Poole.-Description:...
and Canford Cliffs
Canford Cliffs
Canford Cliffs is an affluent suburb of Poole in Dorset, England. The neighbourhood lies on the English Channel coast midway between Poole and Bournemouth...
, also have the largest concentration of expensive properties outside London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. Tottenham Hotspur
Tottenham Hotspur F.C.
Tottenham Hotspur Football Club , commonly referred to as Spurs, is an English Premier League football club based in Tottenham, north London. The club's home stadium is White Hart Lane....
manager Harry Redknapp
Harry Redknapp
Henry James "Harry" Redknapp is a former English footballer who has enjoyed a long career in football management starting in 1983 with Bournemouth. He is the current manager of Tottenham Hotspur....
is among many famous residents of the Sandbanks area. In 2005 a modest bungalow
Bungalow
A bungalow is a type of house, with varying meanings across the world. Common features to many of these definitions include being detached, low-rise , and the use of verandahs...
on the peninsula sold for three million pounds, despite its state of disrepair.
The same bungalow, in the same condition, went on sale in 2007 for four million pounds, attracting further attention.
Sandbanks' properties have been adversely affected by the Financial crisis of 2007–2010, with a significant fall in house prices across the area. However, in July 2009 a 1393 square metre empty plot of land on the peninsula was put up for sale for £13.5 million – the equivalent of nearly £10,000 per square metre.
Sandbanks is also home to three hotels, one of which is the historically important Haven Hotel
Haven Hotel
The Haven Hotel is an AA four star hotel in Sandbanks, near Poole, Dorset on the south coast of England.-History:The first hotel built on this location was the North Haven Inn in 1838. The Inn was demolished and replaced with the present Haven Hotel in 1887...
, constructed in 1887 on the site of a previous hotel named the North Haven Inn which was built in 1838. The hotel was both the home and centre of wireless experiments by Guglielmo Marconi
Guglielmo Marconi
Guglielmo Marconi was an Italian inventor, known as the father of long distance radio transmission and for his development of Marconi's law and a radio telegraph system. Marconi is often credited as the inventor of radio, and indeed he shared the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics with Karl Ferdinand...
in the late 1890s, and was the third place in the world to boast a permanent wireless station (1899).
The Royal National Lifeboat Institution
Royal National Lifeboat Institution
The Royal National Lifeboat Institution is a charity that saves lives at sea around the coasts of Great Britain, Ireland, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, as well as on selected inland waterways....
stationed a lifeboat
Lifeboat (rescue)
A rescue lifeboat is a boat rescue craft which is used to attend a vessel in distress, or its survivors, to rescue crewmen and passengers. It can be hand pulled, sail powered or powered by an engine...
at Sandbanks in 1865. The crew had to travel from Poole in a horse-drawn carriage whenever it was launched so a new Poole Lifeboat Station
Poole Lifeboat Station
Poole Lifeboat Station is the base for Royal National Lifeboat Institution search and rescue operations at Poole, Dorset in England. The first lifeboat was stationed at Poole Harbour in 1865 and the present station was opened in 1988...
was opened at Fisherman's Dock on Poole Quay in 1882.
Views to the north extend across Poole Harbour and to Poole. To the south views extend across the English Channel and to the world heritage coastline of Studland and Swanage
Swanage
Swanage is a coastal town and civil parish in the south east of Dorset, England. It is situated at the eastern end of the Isle of Purbeck, approximately 10 km south of Poole and 40 km east of Dorchester. The parish has a population of 10,124 . Nearby are Ballard Down and Old Harry Rocks,...
in the west.