I’m in Warwickshire: famous for Stratford-on-Avon (where Shakespeare was born), the town of Rugby (yes, where rugby started), and Warwick Castle (which is still in good nick, complete with battlements and full of wax figures etc set up to look like how it was back in the day).
But, I’m here because Matthew and I lived in Royal Leamington Spa (also knowns as “Leam” pronounced “Lem”), for a year in 2003/2004. It was a compromise location in a pretty town. I was working at the University of Birmingham (27 miles, commuting by train) and Matthew was working at the University of Warwick (8 miles, commuting by bus). It is also, incidentally, pretty much the furthest you can get from any beach in the UK – it is one of the places that claims to be the centre of the UK. We had a pub 50 metres from our front door, and a canoe/kayak club 100 metres away for Matthew on the River Leam (a river which was gross then, and has not improved – don’t fall in!).
My plan was to stay for a few days and check out old sites, walks, pubs etc. I chose (accidentally) a 27 degree bank holiday Monday to arrive on, so there were people everywhere. It is much more tourism-centric two decades on, and the English were all picnicking in the parks and eating ice cream. It sounded like a great idea, so I joined them after going by our old flat and pub, and the national bowls centre next door (still going strong after 100 years – and it’s the headquarters of Bowling England!).
Leamington was a small medieval village called Leamington Priors until saline springs were exploited in the early 19th century. It became a fashionable spa resort, like Bath, for a few decades until the railway came through and people started going to the seaside. It has a bunch of Regency and Georgian architecture, and the All Saints Church is one of the biggest parish churches in England (rivalling cathedrals). It is “Royal” because Queen Victoria stayed here when she was a kid (1830), and then the town petitioned her to become royal (1838). There is also a bunch of industrial and manufacturing history, but I don’t find that as interesting. The pump rooms is now a museum, and the riverside has gardens that were (are?!) used for promenading.
I’m staying in the Regent Hotel – where Princess Victoria (and a bunch of other famous people stayed). It’s now a rather average Travelodge, but with a cool (wonky) stairway and stained glass windows.
This one time, a guy bought three elephants back from Sri Lanka and set up a circus in Leamington (late 1800s). Apparently he was England’s first elephant trainer, and the elephants used to bathe in the river (where a special slipway was built).
