Leamington Spa
Royal Leamington Spa, commonly known as Leamington Spa or simply Leamington, is a spa town and civil parish in the Warwick district, in Warwickshire, England. Originally a small village called Leamington Priors, it grew into a spa town in the 18th century following the popularisation of its water which was reputed to have medicinal qualities. In the 19th century, the town experienced one of the most rapid expansions in England. It is named after the River Leam, which flows through the town.
The town contains especially fine examples of Regency architecture, particularly in parts of the Parade, Clarendon Square and Lansdowne Circus. The town also contains several large public parks, such as Jephson Gardens, the Royal Pump Room Gardens and Victoria Park.
Although originally founded around its spa industry, Leamington today has developed into a centre for retail, and digital industries, which has gained it the moniker "silicon spa". In 2023 The Sunday Times named Leamington as the best place to live in the Midlands.
In the 2021 census Leamington had a population of 50,923. Leamington is adjoined with the neighbouring towns of Warwick and Whitnash, and the village of Cubbington; together these form a conurbation known as the "Royal Leamington Spa Built-up area" which in 2011 had a population of 95,172.
Leamington lies around east of the county town of Warwick, south of Coventry, southeast of Birmingham, and northwest of London.
History
Leamington was originally a small village known as Leamington Priors. Its name came from Anglo-Saxon Leman-tūn or Lemen-tūn = "farm on the River Leam". It was first mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Lamintone. For 400 years, the settlement was under the control of Kenilworth Priory, from which the older suffix derived. Leamington began to develop as a town at the start of the 19th century, due to the rediscovery of spa waters, which had been known in Roman times, and their rediscovery in 1784 by William Abbotts and Benjamin Satchwell led to their commercialisation, with invalids beginning to resort here in 1786. Six of the seven wells were drilled for; only the original spring at the site of the Aylesford Well, adjacent to the Parish Church, occurred naturally.The old village of Leamington Priors was on the southern bank of the River Leam, and early development was based around this. During the early 19th century, developers began concentrating the town's expansion on the land north of the river. This resulted in the Georgian centre of New Town with the Leam flowing between the two. By 1810, the town's existing bath houses could not cope with the increasing visitor numbers, and a syndicate was formed to build a new bath house north of the River Leam. A new saline spring was found on land close to the river, belonging to Bertie Greatheed, a wealthy plantation owner and landowner from Guy's Cliffe, and a member of the syndicate. In 1814, the Royal Pump Rooms and Baths were opened on the site, designed by C.S. Smith, who also designed The Regent Hotel and the Upper Assembly Rooms in the town. Spa water can still be sampled outside the building.
Leamington became a popular spa resort attracting the wealthy and famous, with numerous Georgian townhouses to accommodate visitors. Construction of what is now the Parade began in sections from 1808, the Regent Hotel in 1818, a town hall in 1830. and the Jephson Gardens in 1834. In 1838 Queen Victoria granted the town a 'Royal' prefix, and 'Leamington Priors' was renamed 'Royal Leamington Spa'. Queen Victoria had visited the town as a Princess in 1830 and as Queen in 1858. In 1840 the Victoria Bridge was opened, connecting the old and new towns, replacing an old, narrow, and inconvenient bridge. Nine years earlier, the opening of Portobello Bridge, a three-arch bridge over the River Avon, reconnected the town to neighbouring Warwick—an earlier bridge nearby having been condemned and demolished in 1830.
The growth of Leamington was rapid; at the time of the first national census in 1801, Leamington had a population of just 315, by 1851 this had grown to 15,724, and by 1901, the population had reached 26,888.
The London and North Western Railway opened the first railway line into Leamington; a branch line from Coventry in 1844, followed by a branch to Rugby in 1851. In 1852 the Great Western Railway's main line between Birmingham, Oxford and London opened through Leamington, upon which the first railway station at the current location was opened.
As the popularity of spa resorts declined towards the end of the 19th century, the focus of Leamington's economy shifted towards becoming a popular place of residence for retired people and for members of the middle class, many of whom relocated from Coventry and Birmingham. Its well off residents led to the development of Leamington as a popular place for shopping.
In 1832 the town's main hospital, Warneford Hospital, opened, named after philanthropist Samuel Wilson Warneford. At first a semi-private affair it was taken over by the National Health Service after the Second World War, before succumbing to budget cuts and closing in 1993.
Leamington is closely associated with the founding of lawn tennis. The first tennis club in the world was formed in 1872 by Major Henry Gem and Augurio Pereira who had started playing tennis in the garden of Pereira. It was located just behind the former Manor House Hotel and the modern rules of lawn tennis were drawn up in 1874 in Leamington Tennis Club.
During the Second World War, Leamington was bombed a number of times during The Blitz; although this caused substantial damage it caused relatively few casualties. The town was also home to the Free Czechoslovak Army; a memorial in the Jephson Gardens commemorates the bravery of Czechoslovak parachutists from Warwickshire.
Geography
Leamington is divided by the River Leam running east to west, which is susceptible to flooding in extreme weather, with especially heavy floods in 1998 and 2007.The Leam is a tributary of the River Avon, which it joins just to the west of Leamington. The ancient town of Warwick lies adjoined directly to the west of Leamington, on the opposite bank of the Avon, with parts of Warwick extending to the southwest and south of Leamington. Also contiguous with Leamington, directly to the south, with no natural border, is the smaller town of Whitnash. Whitnash and Warwick are themselves contiguous with new housing developments within the parish of Bishop's Tachbrook. The village of Cubbington is adjoined to the north-east. Just outside the town lie the villages of Old Milverton to the north and Radford Semele to the east.
Leamington has several suburbs; the town has encompassed the former village of Lillington, directly to the north of the town centre. Other suburbs include Milverton to the northwest, Campion Hills to the east, and Sydenham the east. The rapidly expanding Heathcote district to the southwest, though often referred to as part of Leamington, actually lies mainly within the boundaries of Warwick, with parts in Whitnash and the parish of Bishop's Tachbrook.
The main road running through the town centre is the Parade. This shopping street contains high street chains and The Royal Priors shopping mall.
Governance
Local government
Leamington Spa falls under three tiers of local government, county, district and parish: it is a civil parish in the Warwick District, an administrative division of the county of Warwickshire, it thus falls under the jurisdiction of Warwickshire County Council, based in Warwick as the upper-tier authority. Between 1875 and 1974 Leamington was a municipal borough. As part of the 1974 local government reform it was merged with Warwick, Kenilworth and Whitnash, and surrounding rural areas into the Warwick District, which has its offices in Leamington. Since the 2023 elections, Warwick District Council has been run by a coalition of the Labour Party and Green Party, it was previously run by a Conservative-led minority administration.In 2002 Leamington Spa became a civil parish and gained a new Town Council, as the most local tier of government.
National representation
Leamington is part of the parliamentary constituency of Warwick and Leamington. From the 1997 general election until the 2010 general election the constituency was represented in parliament by James Plaskitt of the Labour Party; until then this had been a Conservative safe seat, counting former British prime minister Anthony Eden among its Members of Parliament. The seat became highly marginal at the 2005 general election, where James Plaskitt won with a majority of just 266 votes. In the 2010 general election the seat returned to the Conservative Party, with Chris White winning the seat by 3,513 votes. White remained the MP until the 2017 general election, when the seat was won by Matt Western of the Labour Party with a narrow majority, he retained his seat at the 2019 general election with his majority reduced from 1,206 to 789, and again at the 2024 election with a greatly increased majority of 12,412.Notable buildings
Buildings in the town include a variety of Georgian and early Victorian architecture, and listed buildings such as the Grade II listed Lansdowne Crescent in neo-classical style, designed by William Thomas between 1835 and 1838.Amongst the Anglican churches in Leamington is the Gothic parish church All Saints' Church, and St John the Baptist's Church.
St Mark's Church on Rugby Road was designed by George Gilbert Scott Jr. in 1879. It is a Gothic revival design, in red brick with stone dressings. It was endowed by the Carus-Wilson family, in memory of Frances Carus-Wilson, wife of Sir Trevor Wheler.
There is a Roman Catholic church, St Peter's Church, two United Reformed churches, a small mosque and a Hindu temple. In 2009, the Sikh community built the Gurdwara Sahib Leamington and Warwick in Warwick which also serves Leamington. There are also Christadelphian and Jehovah's Witnesses meeting halls in the town.
Eden Court in Lillington is a residential tower block and one of several tall landmarks. In December 2010, the Warwickshire Justice Centre was completed in Newbold Terrace. As well as a police station, the complex houses a magistrates' court, and the Crown Court, County Court, and other agencies such as the Probation Service and Victim Support. It was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 4 March 2011.
An oak tree just to the northeast of the town centre is marked by a plaque stating that it commemorates the Midland Oak, a tree that grew near the spot and was reputed to be at the centre of England.