Royal Tunbridge Wells

Royal Tunbridge Wells (often called simply Tunbridge Wells) is a Wealden town in west Kent in England, just north of the border with East Sussex. It has a population of approximately 45,000 (2001 census) and is the administrative centre of the Tunbridge Wells Borough.

World views of the town

Tunbridge Wells is traditionally associated with the prim middle classes, especially in the locution "Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells". This phrase was apocryphally used to sign a letter to The Times and/or Daily Telegraph some time in the 1920s, and has remained in circulation because of its perceived aptness in describing the inhabitants of the town. Tunbridge Wells is often assumed to be a bastion of the middle classes and comfortably bourgeois. However, it also has areas of deprivation that suffer from a range of social problems.

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References to Tunbridge Wells abound in literature as diverse as Zadie Smith's White Teeth and E.M.Forster's Room With a View - and David Lean's epic Lawrence of Arabia closes with the words from Dryden as answer to King Feisal:"Me? Your Highness? - On the whole, I wish I'd stayed in Tunbridge Wells."

Related Topics:
Zadie Smith - E.M.Forster - David Lean - Lawrence of Arabia - King Feisal

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