3-011-363 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The promenade on the Pantiles, Tunbridge Wells, 1864. 'We present a view of that famous promenade at Tunbridge Wells called "The Pantiles," from the materials with which it is paved. There is a story that this pavement was laid down early in the last century for the express satisfaction of Queen Anne, who was one of the earliest patronesses of Tunbridge Wells, and who had complained of the rough walking in its streets. This pleasant and healthy resort of fashionable Londoners in quest of mild recreation is a place of much historical and literary interest, being full of associations with the classical names of a former age, Bolingbroke and Pope, Johnson, Gibbon, and Richardson having been amongst its most distinguished visitors, to say nothing of the Royalty and aristocracy which shone there in by-gone seasons. Two of the leading authors of our own day - Macaulay and Thackeray - have employed their graphic skill in describing the aspect of Tunbridge Wells as it appeared a hundred or a hundred and fifty years ago'. Royal Tunbridge Wells was a spa in the Restoration and a fashionable resort in the mid-1700s when the Pantiles, and its chalybeate spring, attracted visitors who wished to take the waters. From "Illustrated London News", 1864.