Royal Tunbridge Wells Royal Tunbridge Wells Royal Tunbridge Wells, previously just Tunbridge Wells, is a town in western Kent, England, south-east of central London, close to the border with East Sussex upon the northern edge of the High Weald, whose sandstone geology is exemplified by the rock formations at the Wellington Rocks and High Rocks. The town came into being as a spa in the Restoration and enjoyed its heyday as a fashionable resort in the mid-1700s under Beau Nash when the Pantiles, and its chalybeate spring, attracted significant numbers of visitors who wished to take the waters. Though its popularity as a
Royal Tunbridge Wells spa town waned with the advent of sea bathing, the town remains highly popular and derives some 30 per cent of its income from the tourist industry. The town has a population of around 56,500, and is the administrative centre of Tunbridge Wells Borough and the parliamentary constituency of Tunbridge Wells. Evidence suggests that Iron Age people farmed the fields and mined the iron-rich rocks in the Tunbridge Wells area, and excavations in 1940 and 1957–61 by James Money at High Rocks uncovered the remains of a defensive hill-fort. It is thought that the site was occupied into the era