One opened at the Hampshire Centre (now Castlepoint) in 1968. It lasted until the 1980s, when the majority of Woolcos became Gateway hypermarkets and were later taken over by Asda. Woolco. Woolworths Bournemouth’s original Woolworths was destroyed by the 1943 bombing that also claimed the nearby Punshon Memorial Church and the Central Hotel. From the 1950s, Woolworths expanded and modernised. In 1955, the Echo reported on the opening of a “new self-service style” Woolworths at Westbourne – only the second of its kind in the country. In the 1960s, Woolworths introduced huge out-of-town stores, called Woolco. Bournemouth’s Woolworths, in the Square, was put up for sale in 1981 and was bought by Boots for £5million.