Royal Pump Rooms, The Parade, Leamington Spa - 01926 742762 leamington@shakespeare-country.co.uk

In Domesday, it was Lamintone, the tun (enclosure) beside the (river) Lean (elm river).

Formerly known as Leamington Priors, Leamington began to develop as a town at the start of the 19th century. It was first mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Lamintone. For 400 years, the settlement was under the control of Kenilworth Priory, from which the older suffix derived. The healing properties of the spa waters had been known in Roman times) and their rediscovery in 1784 by William Abbotts and Benjamin Satchwell, led to their commercialisation.

Early development of the "Old Town" centre was on the southern bank of the River Leam. Later builders began concentrating the town's expansion on the land north of the river, resulting in the Georgian centre "New Town" with the Leam flowing through the centre of the modern town. In 1767 Parliament passed an Act, proposed by Edward Willes, a local landowner, for dividing and enclosing the open and common land on the south and west of the River Leam. Following a survey of the area by John Tomlinson in 1768, the land was estimated to be 990 acres and was subsequently divided, and new public roads were laid out. After the division on the south of the river most of the land east of the village was owned by the Willes family and to the west by Matthew Wise. To the north of the river most of the land was owned by the Willes family, the Earl of Warwick, and Bertie Greatheed. The main landholders of the village and adjacent land were the Earl of Aylesford, and a number of smaller landowners such as Lord Sharma. In the following decades some of the land was sold. By 1901 the population of Leamington had grown from a few hundred to nearly 27,000.

In 1814 the Royal Pump Rooms and Baths were opened close to the River Leam. This grand structure attracted many visitors, expecting cures by bathing in pools of salty spa water. It also included the world's first gravity fed piped hot water system in modern times, which was designed and installed by the engineer William Murdoch. Leamington became a popular spa resort attracting the wealthy and famous, and construction began of numerous Georgian townhouses to accommodate visitors, and a town hall was built in 1830.

With the spread of the town's popularity, Leamington was granted a "Royal" prefix in 1838 by Queen Victoria, who visited the town as a Princess in 1830 and as Queen in 1858. A statue of the queen was almost destroyed by a German bomb during World War II, and was moved one inch on its plinth by the blast. The statue was not returned to its original position, and the incident is recorded on a plaque on its plinth.

The function of the Royal Pump Rooms changed several times over the following years. While retaining its assembly rooms and medical facilities, around 1863 it was extended to include a Turkish Bath and swimming pool, in 1875 the Royal Pump Room Gardens were opened to the public, and in 1890 a further swimming pool was added. The economy of Leamington decreased towards the end of the 19th century following the decline in popularity of spa towns, and it became a popular place of residence for retired people and for members of the middle-class who relocated from Coventry and Birmingham, and wealthy residents led to the development of Leamington as a popular place for shopping. In 1997, the owners of the building, the district council, closed the facility for redevelopment, reopening it in 1999 as a culture centre. It now contains Leamington Spa Art Gallery & Museum, Library, a Tourist Information Centre, refurbished assembly rooms and a cafe. Spa water can still be sampled outside the building.

Leamington is closely associated with the founding of lawn tennis. The first tennis club in the world was formed in 1872 by Major Henry Gem and Augurio Pereira who had started playing tennis in the garden of Pereira. It was located just behind the former Manor House Hotel and the modern rules of lawn tennis were drawn up in 1874 in Leamington Tennis Club.

During the Second World War, Leamington was home to the Free Czechoslovak Army; a memorial in the Jephson Gardens commemorates the bravery of Czechoslovak parachutists from Warwickshire.

Leamington is divided from north to south by the River Leam, which is susceptible to flooding, with especially heavy floods in 1998 and 2007. The town is expanding, particularly to the south, due its being within commuter distance of Coventry (10 miles) and Birmingham (25 miles).

The town has several parks and gardens, including the Jephson Gardens, close to the Royal Pump Rooms and next to the River Leam. These were seriously damaged in the floods of 1998, but have been restored and improved with funding from the National Lottery. The other side of the River Leam, on Priory Terrace features a 19th-century slipway down to the river located near the suspension bridge in Jephson Gardens. It was specifically constructed so that circus elephants in winter quarters in Leamington could be watered. Other parks are the Mill Gardens on the opposite bank of the river to Jephson Gardens, Victoria Park, the Royal Pump Room Gardens, Newbold Comyn, The Dell and Welsh's Meadow nature reserve. The central part of the town is the Parade, a renaming of Lillington Lane in 1860. The shopping street contains high street chains and the Royal Priors covered shopping centre.

Buildings in the town include a variety of Georgian and early Victorian architecture, and listed buildings such as the Grade II Lansdowne Crescent in neo-classical style, designed by William Thomas between 1835 and 1838.

A young tree called the Midland Oak, at Lillington, just to the northeast of the town centre, is marked by a plaque stating that it is at the very centre of the country, although there may be little evidence to support this claim.