Tunbridge Wells

Tunbridge Wells became a spa after the chalybeate waters were discovered in the early 17^th century.

The Pantiles, the main fashionable avenue, were thus named because they were paved with tiles baked in a pan, the paving being undertaken at the command of Queen Anne in the early 18^th century.


The Pantiles: View from the North end, looking South
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The Pantiles: View of the North end, with the chalybeate spring
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Tunbridge Wells, like Bath, became a spa, where visitors coming to take the waters would also seek entertainments such as music.


The chalybeate spring: [click on the picture to enlarge it]


The chalybeate spring: A close up of the plate
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The music gallery on the Pantiles, facing the colonnade. Behind is the corn exchange, a theatre in the 18^th century.


Music gallery: [click on the picture to enlarge it]


Music gallery: [click on the picture to enlarge it]

Tunbridge Wells was also well-known for the serious-mindedness of its visitors, and its inhabitants numbered non-conformist ministers and scientists.

The house of the mathematician Thomas Bayes in Tunbridge Wells.The plate is one of a series put up in 2006 for the fourth centenary of the discovery of the chalybeate waters.

Bayes is still known for ’Bayes’s theorem’.