West Cliff Railway

This article is about the cliff railway in Bournemouth. For the similarly-named cliff railway in Hastings, see West Hill Cliff Railway.

The West Cliff Railway, or West Cliff Lift, is a funicular railway located in the English seaside resort of Bournemouth. The line serves to link the seaside promenade and beach with the cliff top and the town behind.

On the 20th March 1903, the Bournemouth Corporation agreed a 999 year lease for the cliffs and foreshore owned by Sir George Meyrick of Hinton Admiral for an annual rent of £111, commencing Christmas Day 1902. On the 19th December 1907 further licence was granted to the Corporation to construct ‘a lift for the raising and lowering of visitors and others from and to the level of the beach from and to the level of the top of the West Cliff with machine house, the Corporation causing no obstruction or interference with the free enjoyment by the public of the promenade on top of the cliff and maintaining the slope or bank against the land of Meyrick occupied by the Coastguards so as not to injure or affect the fences of the Coastguard premises.’

The Coastguard cottages referred to exist today as an annex to the Marriott Highcliff Hotel located behind the lift, and pre-date the founding of the town in 1810. They were substantially extended in 1831. The lift machinery and trackway was built by Messrs Waygood-Otis with the concrete foundations, earthworks and toll houses built by Messrs Harrison & Co of Birmingham for a combined sum of £4,395 - £895 more than the East cliff lift, which opened four months earlier.

The West cliff lift opened at 10am on the 1st August 1908. There was no formal opening ceremony, although commencement was attended by the Chairman of the Beach Committee, the Borough Engineer Mr Lacey and his assistant Mr Dolamore.

The lift conveys passengers through a vertical height of 102 feet on a 5 ft 8 ins gauge railway track inclined at 45 degrees. The total track length is 144 feet and the lift was originally designed to travel at 190 feet per minute. The original motive power was provided by a 500 volt 25 hp electric DC current motor. This was replaced in 1958 with a modern 3 phase AC supply. The lift is controlled by a Driver at the top and assisted by an Attendant at the bottom.

The first lift cars were modelled on tram cars then familiar on the streets of Bournemouth. Built from Ash wood frames with a plywood skin, they weighed 3 ½ tons each including their supporting wheeled cradles. The cars, slightly larger with increased capacity compared with the East cliff lift, were overhauled several times in the post-war period (most recently in 1975).

The stepped cliff terracing either side of the lift is constructed from local purbeck stone and was largely rebuilt following a severe cliff fall in 1957.

The lift has operated continuously between March and October since first constructed, except for a hiatus between 19 August 1940 and the end of the Second World War. It is estimated that in excess of 15 million people have travelled on the West cliff lift since it was first opened.

Further cliff lifts opened at East Cliff on the 16th April 1908 and Fisherman’s Walk on 8 June 1935. The latter is believed to be the most recent built in the UK, although plans were drawn up in 1956 for vertical lift shafts to be sunk into the cliffs at Manor Road and Woodland Avenue. These were never built.