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Royal Leamington Spa has a host of attractions to cater for so many different tastes.  

The stylish Regency and Georgian architecture provides a superb setting together with the tree lined avenues and squares. The Jephson Gardens have recently received a £4.3 million restoration and they are now back to their very best. The gardens now host a temperate house, riverside restaurant and refurbished boat house. Across the road is the magnificent Royal Pump Rooms cultural complex which now houses the museum, art gallery, library and tourist information centre. In the museum there are displays of the historic use of the pump rooms and spa treatments including fascinating period objects. If you so wish you can still sample the spa waters but be warned it is not to everyone’s taste.

The town holds a vast range of events throughout the year. On the fourth Sunday every month the town hold a very popular Farmers market at the Royal Pump Room Gardens. In May and September Leamington has a taste of the continent when the French Market comes to town. During the summer months there is a series of free music concerts on Sundays in Jephson Gardens when audiences can hear the best in local brass band sounds. Other events planned for this year include the Peace Festival in June, The Asian Festival MELA in August and The Women’s World Bowls Championships which take place at Victoria Park in September.

The recently refurbished Royal Priors Shopping Centre has a vast range of contemporary retailers – but what makes the town really special is the variety of independent retailers from designer to jewellery to fashion, from trendy boutique high street The town also has a fantastic range of eateries, restaurants and bars

The night time economy is booming with visitors travelling into town from as far as field Nottingham and Northampton.

Visit the exclusive fashion retailers, top cuisine and regionally renowned night life to experience the difference – you’ll love it.

History of the Town

The town of Leamington Spa, originally known as Leamington Priors was a tiny village until about 1800. 
The value of the mineral springs was known in the middle ages, but it was not until 1784 that the small village began rediscovering its saline springs and started building baths around some of them.

In the period just prior to 1810 it had become obvious that the town's existing Bath Houses could not cope with the ever increasing number of visitors. Plans were made to build a bathing establishment on a scale surpassing anything yet attempted. A syndicate was formed to provide the necessary funds.

A company was formed to buy the land on the west side of the Parade for building purposes. This was the start of the 'new town' and it was hoped the new baths could be erected in this area. However, attempts to discover a reliable source of saline water in this vicinity were unsuccessful. Eventually in 1810 a spring was discovered on land owned by Mr Greatheed - a member of the syndicate - on the north side of the river, but only a stones-throw away from the old town.

The Gardens are the centre-piece of a sequence of 19th century parks beside the River Leam in Regency and Victorian Leamington Spa. The whole group is accorded a Grade II in the English Heritage Register of Historic Gardens. The Gardens themselves have long been famous for their floral displays, beautiful and unusual trees, fountains and quiet riverbanks. Among their admirers was the American writer Nathaniel Hawthorne, who described them in 'Our Old Home'. Formerly riverside meadows and woodland, they were laid out as walks in 1832 by the landowner, Edward Willes of Newbold Comyn, and know as the Newbold Gardens. Walking was recommended to visitors by the medical men of the time, notably Dr Henry Jephson, as an essential adjunct to 'taking the waters'. The Gardens' other purpose was to raise the value of properties which Willes planned in Newbold Terrace, by guaranteeing them an open outlook.