The Sunday Times June 5, 2022 5Travel UK
Bobby’s/GiantBobby’s/GiantNiciNiciBOURNEMOUTHBOURNEMOUTH¼ mileThe Nici hotel is
looking to bring
a touch of Miami
to Bournemouth‘T
he DJ was soooo
good, the
cocktails too...
and the sea
views from the
terrace were amazing. We
didn’t want to leave — even
though we had tickets to the
Dreamboys strip show!”
Jade and Liz are on a hen
weekend in Bournemouth. The
rest of the group checked in to
the Premier Inn, but when
Jade, who works in the hotel
industry, scoured online,
hunting for accommodation
unique to the coastal resort,
she spotted slick photos of
palm-print fabrics, retro brass
shower heads and candy-
striped pool loungers.
It looked like a Miami
boutique hotel. It was, in fact,
the Nici. The Nici officially
opens on Thursday, but Liz got
lucky and bagged a room
during its soft opening.
“Bournemouth has been
crying out for somewhere
special like this,” says Liz, who
lives in Southampton and visits
often. “I’m already coming
back with my boyfriend for a
grown-up weekend,” Jade, a
new mum, says.
Yet nobody is more excited
about this hotel than I am. I
was born in “B-Town” (my
family’s affectionate nickname
for the place) and moved away
as soon as I could, studying in
London then moving there
more than 20 years ago.
I became a Londoner;
worse, I became a smug one,
convinced that “cool” things
only happened in the capital.
But when the pandemic hit
and tipped over all our lives
(redundancy from a role I’d
held for 18 years being my
biggest curveball), priorities
changed, I rethought, and I
moved back to the seaside
with my husband and eight-
year-old daughter.
You can imagine, then,
that when somewhere like
the Nici opens, it feels like
a vindication of my life
choices. It must mean,
surely, that somebody else
thinks Bournemouth is worth
another look too.
Nicolas Roach is the owner;
he’s also the founder and
chief executive of the 15-strong
Harbour Hotels Group, which
includes Christchurch
Harbour Hotel (whose
award-winning restaurant
was co-conceived by GaryRhodes) and two glossy
waterfront properties in starry
Salcombe, Devon.
So why would Roach
choose to open the Nici in
little old bucket-and-spade
Bournemouth when there’s so
much cash swilling about in
swanky Sandbanks and
Canford Cliffs nearby?
“I don’t want just the
wealthy to come here — I want
everybody,” he says. “The
whole ethos behind the Nici is
that of South Beach, Miami; a
place where you have people of
all shapes and sizes, all income
levels. Miami’s got a gritty vibe
and real energy that we have in
Bournemouth too.”
So far it’s panning out as
Roach intended. On a warm,
sunny weekend in May, my
fellow guests range from
elderly, sunglassed ladies-wot-
lunch (they order three bottles
of £125 Laurent-Perrier Rosé in
90 minutes) to a hip, tattooed
couple in basketball sweats,
wheeling their whippet around
in a dog buggy. Young, relaxed
restaurant staff talk to my
daughter, not past her, and
happily discuss the merits of
Gryffindor v Ravenclaw when
they spot her Harry Potter
book on the table.
It is not cliquey, it’s notIs Dorset’s
bucket-and-
spade stalwart
finally set for
the big time?
Local resident
Katie Bowman
reports
BOURNEMOUTH
REBORN
pretentious; it’s joyous. How
can it be anything but, when
we’re within Frisbee-throwing
distance of a sandy, Blue Flag
beach, with views eastwards
to Old Harry Rocks and
westwards to the Isle of Wight?
The Nici’s leafy plot is very
Miami too, with the main
building set back, its terraces
and balconies looking across
“insane” tropical
gardens (Roach’s
word) that lead
down to the
beach path and
ocean edge.
By this
summer a
fully serviced
beach club will
open on the
water’s edge (so
SoBe), while a pool
scene with fire pits,
sunken sofas and cabanas for
hire will be in full swing.
For now the pool is the
original one from its days as the
Savoy hotel, formerly owned
by the coach company
Shearings. But it’s a cute,
kidney-shaped number with a
mid-century-modern changing
pavilion and flourishes of fatsia
plants. By next Easter it’ll be a
sleeker, glossier 30m affair,
where waiters flit between pinksunbeds strewn among palm
trees and yucca; the homage to
Miami will even continue
underwater, as the pool will be
tiled in rose-and-white stripes.
I, for one, will be there, with
a Candy Floss in hand — the
Nici’s signature champagne
cocktail that comes with a twirl
of candyfloss attached to the
coupe. And that’s because
locals are as important to
the hotel’s success as
overnight guests.
Remember:
British seaside
towns are very
different
places from
October to
April.
So residents
will be able to buy
spa memberships
(there’s already a long
waiting list) or day passes for
the pool, and it is for them that
Roach has concocted not one
but three dining spots: Harry
Rocks bar for rooftop sushi
and sundowners; Southbeach,
with its chequerboard terrace
and sunny dining room with
banana plants and vintage
pinball machines; and a
beach café, from where you
can hire boogie boards and
paddleboards.It’s not only the Nici getting
me excited about my old/new
home town. Last autumn
Bobby’s threw open its
fabulous swing doors to the
unsuspecting public. Originally
Bobby’s department store in its
1915 heyday, it morphed into a
rather bleak branch of
Debenhams (I remember one
friend shoplifting a swimsuit
there in 1992). After a long
closure it has reopened as
Bobby’s again, with a vintage-
look beauty hall on the ground
floor, an old-school ice cream
parlour, and South Coast
Makers, a department
dedicated to the work of local
artisans — from Bad Hand
Coffee and BH1 Gin to pots
hand-thrown by the ceramicist
Janice Powley.
More thrilling still — and this
really gives me the confidence
to invite my DFL (down from
London) friends — is Giant, the
UK’s largest artist-run gallery
space outside the Big Smoke. It
launched six months ago on
the second floor of Bobby’s,
giving shoppers the chance to
take in a bit of culture while
they pick up a new lipstick.
For Stuart Semple, the
curator, artist and Giant owner,
the location was a no-brainer.
“There’s no other seaside townlike Bournemouth,” he says.
“It’s got the whole package:
emerging art and culture, a
strong tech scene, an
international airport,
beautiful beaches.”
With Giant making a big
splash, the Nici’s launch on the
horizon and the sun shining
down on Bournemouth
Square, it’s easy to feel
jubilant. But when I walk down
the street — misleadingly
named Commercial Road — I
can’t ignore the vacant shops
and empty arcades. Semple
has a plan for this too: along
with a council-backed action
group, he wants to redevelop
the area and rename it the
Indie Quarter. It will become
a pedestrianised creative
district with a world-class art
programme “akin to
Rockefeller Plaza in New
York”, he assures me.
Bring it on, I say. Who
knew that when I moved to
Bournemouth I was actually
moving to the next Miami, or
Manhattan? Just like recently
promoted AFC Bournemouth,
I feel as if I’ve made it to the
Premier League.Katie Bowman was a guest of
the Nici, which has B&B doubles
from £175 (thenici.com)BCP-TOURISM; NOMADIC CREATIVES; BEN STEVENS