‘Wings’ began life as one of seven sculptures making up Boscombe’s Sea Road art trail, a free outdoor route installed in 2010 to link the seafront with the town’s shopping precinct. Commissioned from Dorset sculptor Andy Kirkby, the trail was built around a loose marine theme, and Wings occupied the town-centre end of the route, near where Sea Road meets Christchurch Road. Since then it has been taken down, and this listing exists mainly to explain what it was and where the rest of the trail still stands, rather than to point you at a piece you can currently see.
What it is
Wings was part of a set of seven sculptures Kirkby created after being chosen by a panel of arts professionals, local residents and ward councillors to interpret conversations with people living along Sea Road and Undercliff Road. The pieces shared a coastal, marine-flavoured visual language and were made using a mix of materials including bronze, copper and cast iron across the set. Wings was positioned as the trail’s pedestrian-precinct bookend, facing the pier at the opposite end of Sea Road.
Visiting
Because Wings has been removed, there’s no fixed sculpture to find at its old spot today. The other six pieces from the same 2010 commission are still dotted along Sea Road and are worth the short walk instead: a Venetian-style dome called Murano near the pier, a fish-and-bicycle hybrid known as Chemical Wedding at the Undercliff Road junction, a marble sphere named Optic set behind park bench railings, a piece honouring Mary Shelley’s local connections, a diving helmet balanced on an octopus called Verne, and a former sculpture now doing duty as a plant stand. The whole route is free, self-guided, and takes roughly 25 minutes to walk end to end.
Where it is
Sea Road runs directly inland from Boscombe Pier, connecting the seafront to Boscombe’s high street and shopping precinct. Wings’ original site was at the inland end of that stretch, at the Christchurch Road junction - the natural finishing point if you start a walk at the pier and head up through the Boscombe neighbourhood.
Good to know
If you’re hoping to see Wings itself, it’s worth checking with Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole Council or the trail’s own blog for any update on where it ended up, since no public source currently confirms a new location. The rest of the Sea Road trail, however, remains freely viewable at any time, making it a reasonable stop either before or after a walk along Boscombe Beach.
