Civil Partnerships

Since same sex couples were able to tie the knot in 2005, Bournemouth has become the leading unitary authority in Britain for civil partnerships. Hal Courtney looks into what makes the town so accommodating to these unions.

In December 2005 the first civil partnership ceremony in England took place and since then about 20,000 same sex couples have got hitched across Britain. Of those couples 243 of them have tied the knot in Bournemouth, a statistic that makes Bournemouth Britain's leading unitary for civil partnerships.

One of the main reasons for this is that Bournemouth has long been renowned for having one of the largest gay populations in the UK. The Triangle in particular is a gay friendly district, which accommodates a variety of gay pubs, clubs, bars and restaurants.

Ruby's and The Exchange have long been favourite night clubs for the gay community, whilst the likes of Bent have recently opened its doors.

As far as restaurants are concerned there are a whole host of them scattered throughout Bournemouth town and The Triangle. Jimmy's is a particularly popular place to eat with the gay community and is joined to the club Bent.

However, whilst The Triangle is particularly accommodating to the gay community, Bournemouth in general holds a liberal stance with same sex partnerships. This means finding a location to hold the ceremony and reception is easy here for homosexual couples.

The Town Hall has proven a popular location for civil partnerships, whilst there are an abundance of places to have the reception.

AFC Bournemouth's Dean Court Football Stadium is one of the top choices or if you like the idea of sea views, then you might want to consider a hotel like The Marriot, which offers gazebos overlooking the beautiful beach. They also have large rooms to hire here, as do other hotels like the Yenton and Norfolk Royale.

Bournemouth Council's website www.bournemouth.gov.uk helpfully details the licensed venues in town that can make planning your big day all the more easy, which kind of summarises why Bournemouth is so popular for same sex unions. It treats civil partnerships in the same way that it treats any other partnership.

The hotels, pubs, clubs and restaurants are liberal establishments and will accommodate for gay people as they would straight people. Then of course there is the beautiful sun, sea and sand, which make Bournemouth not just popular with holidaymakers but popular with people who are getting hitched.