Bournemouth East was the first railway station to be built in Bournemouth, England. Completed on 14 March 1870, it was sited at the south-east side of the Holdenhurst Road bridge, opposite the current station, at the end of an extension of an existing branch from Ringwood to Christchurch which had originally opened on 13 November 1862. The facilities offered by this station were very basic and not befitting a wealthy town which by 1871 had reached 5,900 inhabitants.