The safest of Tory seats, Royal Tunbridge Wells lies in West Kent, close to the East Sussex border. Famed for it’s fictional ranting, right-wing complaints letter writer ‘Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells’ the place has often been mistaken for a hot-seat of fanatical conservatism. Nothing could be further from the truth. Local newsagents do stock papers other than the Daily Mail and the working classes who live here are not
overtly ridiculed.
10 INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT ROYAL TUNBRIDGE WELLS
1. Wannabe Irishman Shane McGowan of the Pogues was
actually born here
2. Tunbridge Wells is one of only two towns in England allowed
to use the prefix royal
3. Tunbridge Wells has it’s very own caped superhero
‘Spaman’
4. Roger Daltry lead singer of ‘The Who’ has a trout farm on
the town’s outskirts
5. Director Mike Laloe’s Auntie went to school in Tunbridge
Wells with Comedienne Jo Brand
6. The spa water is brown
7. The town’s shopping centre was opened by Princess Diana
in 1990
8. It’s named after nearby town Tonbridge, which at the time
was spelt Tunbridge
9. Tunbridge Wells has three mountains. Mount Ephraim,
Mount Sion and Mount Pleasant, none more than 100 metres
high
10. The tour de France came past the town in 1993
Watch Henry’s Tour of Tunbridge Wells here
