A Genteel Town: Royal Leamington Spa
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- Published on 04 April 2013
Hello,
I'd only ever paid a very fleeting visit to Royal Leamington Spa many years ago but had a vague memory of a very pretty town with lashings of Georgian architecture. It was good to have an excuse to go and have a proper look round in the company of my lovely niece who moved there several years ago to study acupuncture and has enjoyed its charms.
It is indeed a very attractive genteel town with an abundance of Georgian architecture with some Victorian classics thrown in for good measure. It has the usual collection of high street shops but they all seem a bit more interesting accommodated as they are in beautiful Regency buildings. There are also a large number of independent stores right in the centre, something you don't find in every town as rents and rates are often too high for them.
The Royal Pump Room, The Town Hall, and The Bath Assembly Hall are especially striking:
A Georgian Terrace is a thing of beauty, shame about the cars but modern life must go on:
You don't have to leave the town centre to take a walk in a delightful park...
Or a stroll by a river:
And if you have to wait for your train home there are worse places to wait than this station waiting room straight out of the 1930s:
Just lovely for a change to be in such a quintessentially English town and enjoy it for its own sake.
Triciax
P.s. You may be struck, as I was, by the number of people walking around with guide dogs. It's because the town is home to the Guide Dog Training Centre. Well I never knew that!