Royal Leamington Spa

Armed with spring-like weather and an insatiable American need to explore, we left the comforts and conveniences of city life behind on Saturday and made the long (45min) and arduous (reading on the train) trek to the rough-and-ready town of Leamington Spa (an old spa). Like the early American settlers taming the wild west, we boldly ventured into the great unknown (an extra train stop). The things we do for this blog (click here for pictures).

History: Leamington Spa was founded in the early 1800s when a few prospectors found mineral (salt) springs bubbling up near the river Leam. After wells and baths were built, the town really took off and became a major destination for Londoners and Brummies alike, as people went to ‘take the waters’. Doctors came to the town and set up practice to prescribe all kinds of crazy cures involving bathing or drinking the brackish mineral water at different temperatures. The town really hit its stride when a friend of the Queen who lived there asked if she would rename it ‘Royal Leamington Spa’. She did and business doubled overnight, now that people knew that this town had clearly passed a strict royal inspection. I guess this must have been best for the postmen, who could now tell people they delivered the Royal Mail to Royal Leamington Spa (by royal decree). People were just royal-crazy.

Anyway, the town started to get pretty crowded and even some poor people were coming to the wells, so it was high time for an upgrade. The gentry come to spas to get AWAY from their serfs, not to run into them at the pump house! The town launched a whole new development to the north of the old town, across the river Leam, where much nicer buildings, museums, and baths were built. This new town was the place to be for about 20 years, until better railways and the rise of coastal resorts in the 1860s took all of Leamington’s business elsewhere. The baths were still popular with the locals, however, as ‘Turkish spas’ until around the 1950’s.

We had a great time walking around the town and gardens, and it helped that it was sunny and 50 degrees (Fahrenheit – we still can’t think in Celsius). The main attraction now is the museum in the old Royal Pump Rooms, which gives a good background to spa life. Since people didn’t really bathe back then (Queen Victoria is famous for saying “I take a bath once a year, even when I don’t need it”) the baths were actually a very sanitary place and did help cure lots of diseases basically caused by being filthy. Cheltenham and Bath to the south are two other popular spa towns, with Bath being famous for the Roman baths built there.