Sandbanks

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For the landform see Shoal

Sandbanks Ferry, looking towards Sandbanks

Sandbanks Peninsula, seen from the Sandbanks Ferry looking towards the Haven Hotel

Sandbanks is a small piece of land on the edge of England jutting out over the mouth of Poole Harbour on the English Channel coast at Poole in Dorset, England. It contains one of the most highly awarded and popular beaches in Europe.

Sandbanks, whose main road is known as "millionaires' row", is only 1 km² (0.39 sq mi), and has the fourth highest land value, by area, in the world.^[1]

There are exclusive homes both on Sandbanks and across the immediate region, stretching east from the Harbour to The Avenue (the eastern boundary of Poole). The adjacent areas of Lilliput, Branksome Park and Canford Cliffs, also have the largest collection of expensive properties outside London and are home to many celebrities. In 2005 a modest bungalow on the peninsula sold for three million pounds, despite its state of disrepair^[2]. In 2007 the same bungalow went on sale in the same condition for four million pounds. This also attracted the media's attention.

The Sandbanks and Canford Cliffs Coastline area has been labelled by national media as Britain's equivalent of the coastlines of the Gold Coast, Australia and Orange County, California.^{[citation needed]}

Aside from 3 mi (4.83 km) of beach, Sandbanks is also host to three hotels including the four star, historically important Haven Hotel, constructed some 100 years ago on the site of a previous hotel, which was both the home and centre of wireless experiments by Marconi in the late 1890s, being the third place in the world to boast a permanent wireless station.

Sandbanks is connected to Studland by a chain ferry, the Sandbanks Ferry, which runs across the mouth of the Harbour. The Sandbanks area of Poole Harbour (know as North Haven Lake) is widely used for water sports and by light marina craft. The North side also boasts several sailing, water sport and yacht clubs and is home to the Southern Headquarters of the Royal Yachting Association ^[3] and an international sailing school.

Views from the North extend across Poole Harbour and to Poole. From the South views extend across the English Channel and to the world heritage coastline of Studland and Swanage to the East.

David Croft was born in Sandbanks. Portsmouth manager Harry Redknapp has a house at Sandbanks.