Argyll Bowling Club has a fascinating history that dates back to 1886! Born from a committee meeting at the Bournemouth Borough Council, the club was created, along with two others, out of the council’s close personal links and shared local interests. With very limited council funds to develop the entire area, the three clubs were merged.

Negotiations between the council, the Alum Chine Estate, and Mr Clapcott Dean’s agent to attempt to acquire pockets of land within the area. Eventually, in 1898 an agreement was made that the Pleasure grounds at Alum Chine Estate would be passed on to the local council with a lease of 999 years! This area was renamed as ‘Argyll Pleasure Grounds, West Cliff’ in 1901.
It is not known where the name ‘Argyll’ came from, but there is suggestion that the coastlines of Bournemouth West Cliff and the town of Argyll in Scotland are linked by the writer R.L. Stevenson.

In 1903, the Honorary Secretary of the Westbourne Bowling Club requested that the council grant permission for the “paid-up members of the club” to play on other greens whilst the Argyll green was being completed. Just a few months later the Westbourne Bowling Club started a fresh at the Argyll Bowling Club, based at the Argyll Pleasure Gardens. In 1909 Mr J Snell Spooner became the president of the Argyll Bowling Club.

In 1900, the club was improved with a new bowling green that cost £40! The council came the following Saturday to informally open the gardens and enjoy a game of bowls. Unfortunately, in the following years, the Alum Chine estate was hit with cliff falls and needed extra funding for green and sea defences. Finally, in October 1933 another site was considered for the bowling green. The outcomes of this became a second bowling green at Argyll Gardens and a pavilion.
Even though the club was born from humble beginnings, the persistence of the Westbourne Bowling Club led to the opening of today’s Argyll Bowling Club.