St Alban’s Church stood at the corner of Warwick Street and Portland Street. Its most distinguishing feature was a copper-coated spire. According to historian, T B Dudley, St Alban’s has had the most eventful history of all the Leamington churches. In 1861 the Rev. J Craig, vicar of All Saints erected a corrugated iron building … Read more
Following the end of the First World War David Lloyd George’s Government passed the 1919 Housing Act (the Addison Act, named after the then Minister of Health.) This permittedlocal authorities to build Council Houses and use the General Rate Fund to finance the building of them. There was some reluctance on the part of some of … Read more
Leamington is justly renowned for its Regency elegance, its squares, crescents and the Parade. However, after the glamorous early days of the spa town, it settled into middle-class respectability and residential life. The coming of the railway in the 1840s supported both visitors to the town and an increasing number of commuters, wealthy manufacturers and … Read more
The Royal Spa Centre, designed by Sir Frederick Gibberd and Partners, was officially opened on 15th June 1972, the foundation stone having been laid on 16th November 1970. Sir Frederick was at the time the consultant architect-planner for the Borough of Royal Leamington Spa. The town had never had a theatre venue provided from the public purse. … Read more
Despite the fact that there were five baths in the town already, one man was desperate to find a spring or well of saline water on his land north of the river. That man was Bertie Greatheed (later Greatheed Bertie Percy) of Guy’s Cliffe House and indeed a well was found on his land just to … Read more
From the Portobello Bridge between Warwick and Leamington can be seen an intriguing group of old brick riverside buildings. The Rock Mill, a watermill built in 1792, is the most prominent; this stands next to a substantial Georgian house. Both of these have been redeveloped in recent years, with a row of modern town houses … Read more
The Regent Hotel opened on 19th August 1819, – amongst the earliest of the buildings erected north of the River Leam as the Spa expanded. On a triangular plot, it was wedged between Regent Street, the Parade, and what later became Regent Grove and the site of the new Town Hall. The land had once belonged … Read more
The main cinema in Leamington Spa in 2018 is the Vue which was originally named the Regal and has also been the Apollo. It is on the corner of Portland Place West with Augusta Place. It was opened in September 1931 and is in Art Deco style designed by Horace G Bradley of Birmingham. It is on the site … Read more
This railway station is the sole survivor of the four railway stations that served the town at some time. Two earlier stations not on this site were constructed: one off Rugby Road for the London and Birmingham Railway Company in 1844 (see article) and the other off Avenue Road was opened in 1854 for the London … Read more
The expansion in the population of Leamington Spa brought with it the challenge of treating sewage, a subject not often recognised. It was common practice in the 1850s to allow such effluent to be discharged into the nearest watercourse or river, with the attendant risk of spreading infectious diseases. Other sources of contamination were from … Read more
The first Post Office in Leamington is thought to have been the cottage home of the village cobbler and postmaster, later the discoverer of the first commercial spring, Benjamin Satchwell. By 1829, with the Spa town developing very rapidly and the demand for postal services with it, an independent local post office was set up under … Read more
There can be a debate about which of Lillington or Leamington Priors parish churches was founded first. There is little evidence either way before the Norman Conquest. The Domesday Book states that Lamintone (Leamington) had a priest and, therefore, probably the existence of a form of church, in 1086; there is evidence of a church in … Read more
