Buxton Crescent — built for the spa trade

I’ve been doing some research for the novella I’m writing, The Beast Next Door. It is set in the spa town of Bath, and in a nearby village, so I’ve been looking at spa towns.

Bath is possibly the best known in Regency romance writing, but it is by no means the only one.

Cheltenham was very popular in the day, especially after George III took the waters there in 1788. Royal Leamington in Warwickshire was also popular with the Georgian wealthy. In Derbyshire, Buxton was popular, its Crescent offering accommodation, shops, restaurants and assembly rooms for dancing and gossip. Tunbridge Wells in Kent was another place for the Regency belle and beau to see or be seen. (It was, purportedly, discovered in 1606 when a young nobleman with a raging hangover tasted the water and felt miraculously recovered.)

Harrowgate in North Yorkshire was famous throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth century, and visitors often included European royalty.

Some spas didn’t really take off until the Victorian era. Charles Darwin was a fan of Great Malvern in Worcestershire. In Powys, Wales, more than 30 springs made Llandrindod Wells a popular resort, especially after the coming of the railway. In the Highlands, Strathpeffer came into its own in the 1870s.

And those are just a drop in the bucket!