Tower Park
Tower Park is a leisure destination in Poole, Dorset, England. It was one of the first complexes of its kind when it opened in 1989, and it still continues to attract thousands of people from throughout the area. It is named after the large concrete water tower that sits at the top of the hill on which the complex is built. The complex is owned by X-Leisure who own a number of similar sites across the UK including the Xscape brand.
The site's main attractions include Splashdown - a waterpark boasting 12 slides, and Bowlplex - a 24 lane bowling alley previously known as Megabowl. The bowling centre has had a £1.25m regeneration, with the introduction of many of Bowlplex's sub brands including The Pool Pit and Video-World. There is also a Gala Bingo venue and a cinema with sixteen screens which was formerly owned by UCI, but as a result of a ruling by the Office of Fair Trading concerning the merger of UCI and Odeon Cinemas the theatre was sold to Empire Cinemas. There is also a video arcade and numerous restaurants, fast food outlets and free parking facilities. The complex's Burger King restaurant was rebuilt in 2005 after it was burnt down following an arson attack. Also onsite is a Tesco Extra which has its own parking facilities. There was formerly an ice rink at Tower Park called 'Ice Trax' but this was replaced by Gala Bingo in the mid 1990s.
Tower Park has undergone a modernisation programme to expand its facilities. This includes a new, larger KFC, four new restaurants including TGI Fridays, Nandos, Chiquito and Flame, and the recladding of the existing buildings. The new restaurants are partially built on the site of the Splashdown tower, the former Colonnades building and some of the old car park, which have been demolished. More recently (in 2011), Pizza Express joined the site in the old Flame building
In early 2008 the cinema was bought by Empire Cinema and later in 2009 the company refurbished the whole cinema with costs of around 2 million pounds. In 2011, the cinema added 7 'Studio screens' for films with less showing times to be shown in.