Is Bournemouth a city?
It’s not. A city doesn’t have to have a Cathedral, though – that was a historical requirement. Today, City status is granted by the Queen and isn’t on any specific criteria. Promotions to city status are made on national celebrations from a list of potential applicants – e.g. for the Golden Jubilee Preston, Newport, Stirling, Lisburn and Newry were given City status and for the millennium Wolverhampton, Brighton & Hove and Inverness were given City status.