Royal Tunbridge Wells small districts, "named after the hills on which they stand, Mount Ephraim, Mount Pleasant and Mount Sion; the other is called the Wells..." The 1680s saw a building boom in the town: carefully planned shops were built beside the long Pantiles promenade (then known as the Walks), and the Mount Sion road, on which lodging house keepers were to build, was laid out in small plots. Tradesmen in the town dealt in the luxury goods demanded by their patrons, which would certainly have included Tunbridge ware, a kind of decoratively inlaid woodwork. "They have made the wells very commodious by
Tunbridge Wells Hospital was designed by Anshen & Allen and built by Laing O'Rourke at a cost of £230 million. The first phase of the new hospital, on which construction started in 2008, opened in January 2011; the rest of the hospital opened on 21 September 2011 at which time all services were transferred from the Kent and Sussex Hospital. The new hospital was denied a "Royal" prefix as though it serves Royal Tunbridge Wells, it is not located within the town's boundaries. Facilities management services are provided by Interserve. The new hospital has 512 beds and provides a full range of clinical