Cheltenham
One of the foremost spa towns in England, Cheltenham is a beautifully planned town graced by Regency architecture and wide tree-lined avenues, situated in the heart of Cotswold country. As well as the attractions of its spa, Cheltenham has always offered a wide range of entertainments - it hosts internationally renowned music and literary festivals and is involved in many events in the sporting calendar, especially those of cricket and horse racing.
Prior to the 18 th century Cheltenham was an insignificant small market town tucked underneath the Cotswold edge. However, in 1715 a local Quaker farmer, William Mason, accidentally discovered a saline spring in one of his fields; this happy discovery began a sequence of events which was to change the character of Cheltenham out of all recognition. In 1738 his son-in-law Captain Henry Skillicorne, a retired merchant seaman, inherited the land and was astute enough to capitalise upon his good fortune. He deepened and enclosed the spring, constructed a meeting room and a ballroom and laid out a network of walks and rides which now form the tree-lined Promenade - thus founding the spa.
A report in 1740 on mineral waters in Britain stated that those found in Cheltenham were of the highest quality and as the town's reputation grew a number of other springs were discovered, including one in the High Street around which the first Assembly Rooms were constructed. Dr Johnson paid a visit, as did Handel, but the spa town was off the beaten track, three days by fast coach from London, and trade began to slacken. However, in 1788 a new period of prosperity dawned following the visit of George III who, with his family, spent 5 weeks ‘taking the waters'. This royal endorsement transformed Cheltenham into a highly fashionable resort, and a period of spectacular development followed. An entirely new town was planned to incorporate the best features of neoclassical Regency architecture resulting in the elegant modern town of today. It was during this period in 1816 that the popular Duke of Wellington took the waters to treat a liver complaint; this further boosted the spa town's spiralling reputation.
The golden age of architecture reached its zenith in the late 1820's with the completion of two unique structures. The Promenade, renowned for its superb fountain of Neptune, styled on the Trevi Fountain in Rome, is a wide spacious street lined with splendid Regency houses, trees and statues incorporating Ionic columns and a pediment at the entrance. The Pittville Pump Room is an extravagant masterpiece built between 1825-30, standing within spacious parkland to the north of town. It was built by Joseph Pitt MP as a place to entertain his circle of friends, and consists of a great hall surmounted by a gallery and dome, with a colonnade of Ionic Columns based on The Temple of Illisus in Athens. The beautiful grounds contain sweeping lawns and tree-lined lakes. Today, the Pittsville Pump Room Museum houses imaginative displays of original period costumes dating from its Regency renaissance to the present day.
Other than the Pump Room, Cheltenham's best known examples of Regency building are Montpelier Walk and the Rotunda. The Walk is lined with female statues modelled on those of the Erechtheion Temple at Athens supporting the upper stories, and the Rotunda was the pump room of Montpelier Spa. Suffolk Place and Lansdown Place are both fine examples of elegant Georgian streets, well worth the visit. Regency craftsmen excelled in decorative cast-iron work, and one of the common features of the town's architecture is the delicate ironwork built into many upstairs balconies and verandas. Cheltenham's famous spa water can still be sampled at the Town Hall, as well as at the Pittsville Pump Room, and remains the only natural, drinkable alkaline water in Britain. It is certainly an acquired taste.
Between Pittsville and the town centre lies the Gustav Holst Birthplace Museum; situated in Clarence Road the terraced Regency house was where the acclaimed composer of the ‘Planet's Suite' was born in 1874. Much of his early work was inspired by the surrounding Cotswold countryside and among the items displayed is Holst's original concert piano. The Cheltenham Art Gallery and Museum, also in Clarence Street, houses a fine collection of Cotswold-made furniture and silver inspired by William Morris the Pre-Raphaelite artist and poet. Other work on show includes a major contribution of paintings by 17 th century Dutch masters.
Cheltenham annually hosts a number of top-class arts festivals such as the prestigious International Festival of Music, which gives first performances of new works by British composers. Benjamin Britten, Malcolm Arnold, Sir Arthur Bliss have all been presented. Competitors from all over Europe attend the Festival of Literature and the town's oldest festival, that of Music, Speech, Drama and Dancing. A popular cricket festival has been held in the town since 1877, and it hosts one of the nation's premier horse racing events.
Cheltenham is the most complete Regency town in Britain and as such has very little that remains from earlier historical periods. The only surviving building from the Middle Ages is the parish Church of St Mary, part of which dates from the 12 th century. The church is worth visiting, partly to make a comparison with the rest of the town and partly to view its fine stained-glass windows. The most celebrated of these is the circular east window containing some exceptionally delicate 14 th century tracery, and a most unusual 13 th century Sanctuary bell in the Chancel.