Tunbridge Wells

Tunbridge Wells sprang up out of nothing when Lord North discovered the spa in 1606. Most of the architecture is Regency, from a time when the influential dandy Beau Nash put the town squarely on the map by spending the winter season here and the summer season in Bath, with the cream of English society following in his wake. By 1909 it was so firmly established as a favourite place among royalty that Edward VII granted the Royal pre-fix it parades today.

You can still see Chalybeate Spring, which is in the Pantiles an elegant Georgian arcade crammed with chi-chi shops, tea-rooms, restaurants and bars, as well as A Day at the Wells, an interactive exhibition showing life in Tunbridge Wells during the 1740s. The Museum & Art Gallery has a number of interesting exhibitions and collections of local works and wares and is situated in the Civic Centre, Mount Pleasant.

A few Miles out of Tunbridge Wells is Hever Castle, childhood home of Anne Boleyn, second wife of Henry VIII and later home to Anne of Cleves, Henry's fourth wife. American millionaire William Waldorf-Astor bought Hever castle in 1903 and restored it and many of the paintings, tapestries and artefacts contained within to an admirable level.