Boscombe: What Lies Beneath is a short stop motion animation based on the reported tunnels that run deep below the Hippodrome.... (Now known as the O2 Academy.)
Local legend has it that underground tunnels constructed around 1904 were used to transport all manner of exotic performing animals into the then Hippodrome, all the way from Kings Park approximately a mile away.
Animals that performed in the then Hippodrome included educated elephants, Royal Bengal tigers and Liberty Horses, as depicted in the animation.
The cloaked figure who features in the animation is the Mysterious Dr. Raymond - a magician from the Victorian era who regularly appeared at the Hippodrome. His jaw dropping shows are well documented in archives located in the Heritage Zone, Bournemouth Library.
Although the presence of tunnels cannot be proved or disproved, it is easy to imagine them as dark, damp spaces full of ghosts and echoes from a bygone era.
"Like a myth that will die unless it is constantly retold, or a memory that will fade without remembering".
Hollis, E. (2013) The Memory Palace.