JOIN USStrolling down the pretty colonnaded walkway, I can’t stop admiring the beauty of the Georgian architecture in elegant, centuries-old buildings around. The radiance of the pearl-white structures is offset by the shimmering greenery in the background. Grand, stately, majestic — these words float in my mind as I drink in the beauty of the place greedily. I’m at Royal Tunbridge Wells in the heart of the Kent countryside, and it’s no less than a dream.
This charming little town owes its existence to Dudley Lord North, a young nobleman. Way back in 1606, when Dudley Lord North was returning home to London on horseback after days of partying at a friend’s estate, he noticed a spring of water spouting out from the ground. Thirsty, as he was, he drank it to his heart’s content. He found the experience of drinking the unique-tasting water from the spring so rejuvenating that he related it to his aristocratic friends. Very soon, the spring became the famous haunt of royals and aristocrats in Britain, who didn’t want to miss out on the health-giving properties of the iron-rich water from the spring, which came to be known as Chalybeate Spring.
Spring of life
The popularity of the spring spread far and wide, leading to the development of the area surrounding the spring, Tunbridge Wells, and to the construction of the colonnaded walkway, The Pantiles.
Walking down The Pantiles, even as I’m enjoying this peek into the historic past of Tunbridge Wells, I spot tall red post boxes that are quintessentially English. I lose track of time and age. To add to my sense of disorientation, I find myself right in front of the famous Chalybeate Spring, the spring visited by everyone from Queen Henrietta Maria, Queen Anne and Queen Victoria to Daniel Defoe and William Makepeace Thackeray.
Commoners like me too can drink the water from the Chalybeate Spring, generally served by a ‘dipper’, for a small fee, I’m told. However, I’m not so lucky. I’m here on a Sunday, when the water is not served. I curse my stars.
It’s bright and sunny, but freezing cold. My toes and fingers feel numb. I wonder why I decided to explore the town on such a cold day. A hot cup of freshly-brewed tea is what I need to keep me going, I realise. The Pantiles is home to a wide array of independent shops, restaurants, bars and open-air cafés. I walk into one and what do I see? The café is filled with people in their seventies and eighties, chattering away to glory over cups of steaming hot tea. I admire them for their enthusiasm for life.
The sight also reminds me of another nugget of Tunbridge Wells’s history. During Georgian times, The Pantiles, then known as the Walks, was ‘the’ place to be and no Tunbridger’s day would be complete without a visit to the Walks. However, the colonnade or the Upper Walks was reserved for the gentry, and the Lower Walks for commoners, and this protocol had to be strictly followed! And a dandy named Richard Beau Nash made sure these rules were adhered to. Fortunately, no such rules exist now, nor does Richard Beau Nash, allowing me free access to both the Upper and Lower Walks.
The tea pot arrives, along with fluffy warm scones, butter, cream and strawberry jam. I feast on them like there’s no tomorrow, relishing every bit of the English tea experience, the friendly chatter around me included. Satiated, I leave the warm confines of the café to explore the town further. Walking on the Upper Walks, which affords me magnificent views of the buildings lining the road below, I feel like royalty. But Kevin, the driver, brings me back to reality by signalling it’s time to leave. I’ve to keep my date with the sun and the sea at Brighton, he reminds me.
My being smitten by the place, totally, is as unmistakable as the nip in the air. My love affair with Tubridge Wells has just begun.
* Tunbridge Wells is just 1 hour 20 minutes from London.
* If exploring places around London interests you, the best circuit would be London-Canterbury-Tunbridge Wells-Brighton-Windsor-London.
* Not to be missed for anything under the sun is the English tea experience.
*For more details, log on to
www.visitbritain.org