Description
Tunbridge Wells, a municipal borough, market-town, fashionable watering-place, and seven chapelries, in Kent. The town has two stations, one on the L.B. & S.C.R. and the other on the S.E.R., 34 miles from London, and 4 S of Tonbridge. It consists chiefly of parts of Tonbridge and Speldhurst parishes; includes also part of the Sussex parish of Frant; originated in the discovery of medicinal springs, in the time of James I., by Dudley Lord North; took the name of Tunbridge Wells from the circumstance that persons frequenting its springs could for a time find no lodgings nearer than Tonbridge; was visited in 1630 by Queen Henrietta Maria, attended by a large suite; attracted, during the next thirty years, considerable numbers of illustrious visitors, who all were obliged either to camp on the downs or to lodge at Southborough; began, at the close of the reign of Charles I., to acquire numerous buildings for the accommodation of visitors; was, toward the end of the reign of Charles II., a resort of Queen Catherine of Braganza and of other distinguished persons; was visited also by Queen Anne; rose to pre-eminent celebrity in connection with visits by Gibber, Johnson, Garrick, Richardson, and other leaders of the literary world; was visited in 1834 by the Princess Victoria and the Duchess of Kent, and in 1849 by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert; assumed after the commencement of the nineteenth century the proportions of a town; was materially improved in 1847 by the erection of a portico or piazza in front of its chief spring, and by the formation there of a broad and handsome parade called the " Pantiles." The town is much resorted to by visitors for the chalybeate quality of its waters, the purity of its climate, the picturesqueness of its environs, and a wide command of interesting walks. It is a seat of petty sessions and county courts, publishes six weekly newspapers, carries on a manufacture of " Tunbridge ware," and has a head post office, three banks, several hotels, a town-hall, a neat corn exchange, a police station, a literary and scientific institution with reading-rooms and a good library, an infirmary and dispensary. The public hall was erected in 1870, and is a handsome building of stone in the Byzantine style. It cost upwards of £13,000. The town includes fine ranges of private dwellings, several extensive parks, and numerous mansions and villas. The principal parts are named from the surrounding eminences, as Mount Ephraim, Mount Sion, and Mount Pleasant. The pump room, a large red brick building, was erected in 1877, and includes a fine room containing a fountain, drawing-rooms, &c. The premises are also used by a club and a local masonic lodge. The Calverley Promenade is a range of buildings erected in the northwestern extremity of Calverley Park, in the form of a crescent, with a spacious colonnade in front. The town received a charter of incorporation in 1889, and is governed by a mayor, eight aldermen, and twenty-four councillors. The Bishops Down, Grove Spa, and Tunbridge Wells Sanatorium, situated in grounds of 60 acres, is a handsome building comprising dining and drawing and various recreation rooms, the garden and grounds being beautifully wooded. The Grosvenor Recreation Ground was opened in 1889, and comprises about 10 acres of land which has been well laid out. The Common, situated close to and almost surrounded by the town, covers an area of 180 acres, and is a great attraction and a favourite resort for visitors. A weekly market is held on Fridays. The water supply of the town is excellent. There are two large sewage farms. Acreage of the municipal borough, 3740; population, 27,895; of the ecclesiastical parish of Christchurch, 3237; Holy Trinity, 6262; King Charles the Martyr, 1037; St Barnabas, 3643; St James, 4424; St John, 4845; and St Peter, Windmill Fields, 1939.
Christ Church was erected in 1841, and is a structure of white brick. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Canterbury; gross value, £400 with residence. St John's Church was erected in 1858, and is a building of stone in the Decorated style. The living is a vicarage; net value, £130 with, residence. St James' Church is a building of sandstone in the Gothic style, was erected in 1862 and enlarged in 1883. The living is a vicarage; net value, £600 with residence. St Barnabas' was erected in 1889-90, and is a handsome building of brick in the Lancet style. The living is a vicarage; net value, £150. St Peter's was erected in 1875, and is a building of stone in the Early English style. The living is a, vicarage; gross value, £480 with residence. Holy Trinity, which is the mother church, was built in 1827 at a cost of £12,000, and is in the Early English style. The living is a vicarage; gross value, £500 with residence. The church of King Charles the Martyr was erected in 1676, and is a plain rectangular building of red brick; it was thoroughly restored in 1881. Lady Huntingdon's Connexion chapel was built in 1868. There are Roman Catholic, Baptist, Congregational, Wesleyan, and Primitive Methodist chapels. The Skinners' Company's Middle-Class School was founded by that company in 1880, and opened in 1887, to hold 200 boys; attached to the school are various scholarships.
