The city of Tunbridge Wells, in the picturesque English county of Kent, is one of the prime examples of a quintessentially English city. Tunbridge Wells has had many ups and downs throughout its existence and its placement in the middle of England has been the reason for its waxing and waning fortune. In other words, many of Tunbridge Wells' streaks and slumps were directly affected in one way or another with England's changing fortunes and so Tunbridge Wells can be seen as one of the most archetypical and symbolic cities in all of England. It is certainly one of the oldest, at least, and it seems that farming and mining in small scales has occurred here as early as the Iron Age and perhaps even before that. Anybody familiar with Tunbridge Wells knows that there is a lot of sandstone and many interesting rock formations and as such the city has always attracted people who want to look deeper into the city's foundations for riches.
It was as early as the 1600s, though, that Tunbridge Wells became the town we know and love and sure enough even then it was at the mercy of the swinging tastes of English whim. A courtier to the king was wandering around Tunbridge Wells when he stumbled upon a spring. He tasted the water from it and decreed that it had mystical healing properties that immediately invigorated and refreshed his mind, body, and soul. The man told nearly all of his rich socialite London friends about the magical spring and in no time the city became one of the first in a series of "spa towns" that would become the major trend for rich people who wanted to part with their money. People as high up as the Queen of England would visit the spa in Tunbridge Wells and it became so popular that bath houses for both men and women were erected around the site.
The boom in spa towns allowed Tunbridge Wells to grow in prosperity and many beautiful buildings began to fill the city during the 1600s and 1700s. Unfortunately, the tastes of English nobility were about to change by the middle of the eighteenth century. Around this time people began to espouse the healing virtues of not freshwater springs but sea water. This caused a second influx of prosperity and popularity throughout many of England's most famous coastal towns. Tourist getaways like Blackpool may not have even existed had it not been for the many trend-followers that boosted the economy of these ocean towns but of course Tunbridge Wells wouldn't benefit from any of this as the city saw its spa fortunes decrease. Fortunately the city managed to shed its old reputation quickly and began to rise in prominence again in the 1800s where it would become a relatively well-to-do city until the two World Wars that would later change its fortunes again for the worse. In many ways Tunbridge Wells is a microcosm of the history of English fancies and tragedies and for that reason the city is worthy of the highest esteem whether or not its spring ever did in fact heal anybody.
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