As the name suggests, Old Town was the original heart of Leamington, broadly speaking, that part of the town which lies South of the River Leam. It was known as Leamington Priors.

There has been a settlement on the South side of the River since the 7th Century. Until the late eighteenth century, Leamington Priors was a small agricultural village with a population of about 300, living in 50 or so cottages grouped around the parish church, the vicarage, the mill and mill house and two public houses.

The original spring of salty water was found in front of the Parish Church and encouraged by the commercial success of Cheltenham and Bath, the locals searched throughout the area for a second source so that they could cash in on the medicinal qualities of the water. Two local tradesmen, Benjamin Satchwell and his friend the innkeeper William Abbotts discovered a second spring in 1784. This spring was on land which, fortuitously, belonged to the Abbotts family in Bath Lane – now Bath Street – and they built Abbotts’ “Original” Baths in 1786.

As awareness of the curative powers of the water spread, the village slowly developed but the first visitors were forced to use fairly basic accommodation in the two village pubs. By the turn of the century, however, as the number of bath houses increased and hotels were built, wealthy visitors flocked into the town which was developing on the Bath Street/High Street axis.

The opening of the Victoria Bridge in 1809, allowed the development of the New Town, north of the river and as New Town began to flourish, so the growth of Old Town, south of the river, declined.

In recent years, economic development has been concentrated in the north part of the Town. However, since 1999 the Old Town area has been the focus of a major Government funded regeneration programme, to ensure that all parts of this historic Town share in its ever-growing prosperity.

The Old Town area is full, not only of interesting buildings, but also many small businesses, which are well worth exploring.  Please come and discover Leamington Old Town for yourself.

You might have wondered why the tourist plaques in Old Town show the elephant logo which we have also used in this website. The elephant is the official logo for Leamington Old Town.

Elephants were brought to Leamington by Sam Lockhurst, a world famous elephant trainer who was born in Leamington in 1850. The son of a circus clown, Sam first trained as an acrobat before going to Ceylon where he was captivated by seeing elephants perform. He brought three elephants back to Leamington and trained them as a circus act with which he travelled the world.

Sam often brought his elephants back to Leamington and they performed at the Victoria Grand Circus building which stood on the River Leam where the Loft Theatre now is. It could hold 2000 people, was lit by 50 chandeliers and had a dome nearly 100ft high.

The elephants used to bathe near the Mill suspension bridge and if you walk down Priory Terrace, you can still see the slipway, the Elephant Walk, where they used to go down to the river. The original slipway was closer to the Parish Church, where part of the Post Office now is, but was moved after complaints that the elephants made too much noise and disturbed church-goers on Sundays!

Sam died in Leamington aged 82.

Taken from “Elephants in Royal Leamington Spa” by Janet Storrie, available from the Tourist Office in the Royal Pump Rooms.

Numbers 4 and 6 Clemens Street at the junction with High Street is the site of the oldest remaining baths in Leamington. Smart’s Marble Baths also contained an assembly room and a library but did not operate for long because of competition from New Town. The building has recently been completely refurbished.

Numbers 15 and 17 Church Street are two of Leamington’s oldest cottages. They are timber framed and would have been thatched originally.

The first Town Hall was opened in 1831 on the High Street and used until the opening of the current Town Hall on the Parade in 1884. It has recently been the Polish Club and is now a dance centre and school.

Frank Whittle, the inventor of the jet engine was a Leamington man. His father had a workshop in Clinton Street near the Parish Church of All Saints which is still in use as a small engineering workshop today.