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
Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells "downmarket" towns of Tonbridge and Crowborough both did have one. In 2016, during the United Kingdom referendum on the British membership in the European Union, "The New York Times" used Royal Tunbridge Wells as its base for reporting on the referendum. The town was chosen because it was seen as the "quintessentially English town" due to the "Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells" phrase. Although most Americans would not fully understand the reference, the town was nonetheless considered a symbol of middle England. The town is a Conservative stronghold and was the only council area in Kent to vote by a majority