Boscombe's Gentle Giant

His extraordinary physique made Chang Woo Gow famous, but this well-educated family man sought escape from the limelight in Boscombe, as Jeremy Miles discovers

- Jeremy Miles

AS we celebrate the arrival of the Chinese Year of the Dog on 16 February spare a thought for Bournemouth’s most celebrated oriental resident, Chang Woo Gow who delighted and astonished polite society in the late 19th century.

Standing nearly eight feet tall in his stockinged feet, Chang the Chinese Giant (as he was widely known) used to hold court at his home Moyuen, a Victorian villa in Southcote Road, Boscombe.

As he took his evening stroll a gaggle of followers would watch as the towering Chinaman made his way along the street. Sometimes he’d indulge them and light a cigar from one of the gas-lamps.

But all he really wanted was a quiet life. Suffering from ill health he had retired to the seaside town with his wife and two sons making a modest living by running tea-rooms and an Oriental Bazaar selling Chinese curios, bronzes and silks.

A softly spoken, well-educated one-time businessman who had once been destined to become an international tea-importer, Chang was a prisoner of his extraordinary physique.