Royal Tunbridge Wells: the back story

About Royal Tunbridge Wells: the back story

By the ULTIMATE Brighton Editorial Team

Editor-in-Chief: Jai Michael

Royal Tunbridge Wells grew up around a chalybeate spring discovered in the early seventeenth century. Royalty came to take the waters, the Walks that became the Pantiles were laid out beside the well, and in 1909 King Edward VII granted the town its royal title.

Walk down to the bottom of the Pantiles and you reach the reason Tunbridge Wells exists: a small, iron-stained spring under a colonnade, where a “dipper” still serves the water on special days.

The spring

The chalybeate spring was discovered in the early seventeenth century. Its water is unusually rich in iron, manganese, zinc and calcium, and visitors came to drink it for their health. In 1804 a Bath House designed by J T Groves was built over the spring, with hot and cold baths, showers and vapour baths.

Check opening times and trains on the official sites before you travel.

Royal visitors

By 1619 Tunbridge Wells had become a popular meeting place for royalty and aristocracy, and in 1629 the Queen came to take the waters. Charles II, James I, Catherine of Braganza, Queen Anne and Queen Victoria all followed, and in 1909 King Edward VII granted the town its royal title in recognition of the long connection.

The Pantiles

The colonnaded promenade beside the well began life as The Walks and the Royal Parade: a Georgian place to see and be seen. As the Pantiles it keeps much of its original charm, with boutique shops, cafés, restaurants and bars, summer jazz nights in its bandstand and a Christmas market.

The commons

Above the town, the Tunbridge Wells and Rusthall Commons are managed by the Commons Conservators: woodland, heath and outcrops of sandstone, Wellington Rocks the best known, where children have scrambled for generations.

Tunbridge Wells today

The town keeps its elegant streets and green spaces, Calverley Grounds among them, and The Amelia Scott brings together the museum, gallery and library in one civic building. Trinity Theatre fills a former church, and steam trains run from Tunbridge Wells West on the Spa Valley Railway.

Our advice: arrive by train, walk down through the town to the Pantiles and the spring, and finish on the Common among the rocks.

Opening hours, prices and seasonal openings change, so please check with Royal Tunbridge Wells: the back story before you go.