Anke: Royal Tunbridge Wells

Plaque Hoare

I wonder how many of the hundreds of people I see flowing in and out of the Trinity Church, now a rather fabulous Arts Centre, have noticed that the building has been endowed with one of our Fourth Centenary plaques? This one dedicated to the vicar of the church and ‘Protestant pontiff of Tunbridge Wells’, Canon Edward Hoare.
Edward Hoare, son of a London banker (in fact if you are one of the throngs of City workers like my wife and I, you might have walked past Hoare & Co Bankers on Fleet Street) and born into a Quaker family on his mothers side, moved to Tunbridge Wells from Ramsgate in 1853.
He was an outstanding preacher who exercised his great talents to improve the spiritual life and shape the character of the town during the mid-Victorian period. His sermons were so powerful and compelling that parishoners would fill the church to the point of overflowing and many would travel from miles around just to hear him preach. Such was his powerful spiritual influence that the whole town benefitted from his sermons, many rich and well-known families attracted by his personality bought or built mansions and villas and settled down in the town, developing a wealthy residential area. That's not to say that he only preached to the wealthy, the congregation consisted of all classes of society including professionals, tradesman, manual workers and the poor.
His affect on the town cannot be underestimated, it has been said that "his influence over the community's morals was as great as Beau Nash's had been over its manners".
Canon Hoare had been the leading figure in the religious life of our town for over forty years until his death in 1894, the gothic memorial at the corner of Culverden Park Road was erected in his memory. In the 1980s the memorial was threatened with demolition due to road improvements. Fortunately it proved possible to move the complete structure in one piece a few yards to the north where it is now overlooked by a new housing development and the local bus depot, not really the place he deserves I think. I hope that the new residents of the development will ponder over the memorial from their windows and perhaps give a thought to the great man who helped make our great town.
There are some lovely places around town to pay homage to Mr Hoare, perhaps on a nice sunny day you could stroll around the fabulous Woodbury Park Cemetery and visit the family grave, or on a rainy day head towards Trinity Church and sip a coffee under the same roof that the Canon stood to give so many people joy.

Delighted of Tunbridge Wells

Today just happens to be my birthday. Happy birthday to me. No I am not telling you my age, that's a secret between me and my ever-increasing senility. What better way to celebrate the day than with a nice cuppa, and look what my darling wife bought for me to have my birthday cuppa in. A "Delighted of Tunbridge Wells" mug. The ladies in the Tourist Information bureau on the Pantiles said that they are keeping a running tally of the two versions of the mug that they are selling, apparently the "Disgusted" mug is miles head of the "Delighted" mug. Yes of course Mr Disgusted is more famous, but I'm here today to plead with people to be more delighted with the beautiful town in which we live. Cheers.

What's in Store?

Thanks to everyone who has filled me in on what we have missed after our holiday. It's lovely to be walking around our fabulous town once again, and even the dismal weather couldn't dampen our spirits.
Today was the final day of Habitat inhabiting the Congregational Church so I set to wondering what new retail giant might be inline to take over the huge internal retail space (for that is what its future is, our dream for the Tunbridge Wells Celebration Centre is dashed), I thought it best to poll the person who I think has the greatest knowledge in the world with regards to shopping and shops, my wife. Well, probably your wife too come to that. Her reply? "Clothes, and lots of 'em!" I suspect she is probably right, for what company could afford to or indeed have the stock range to fill three floors? I'm crossing my fingers for an Apple store. What would you like?
The break away and subsequent exploratory jaunt also made me realise how the lovely colonnade of flats on Monson Road are really beginning to brighten up and look marvelous again, there certainly has been some good development work going on up there. Over the next 12 months I think this section of housing will rocket in value and could perhaps even become quite trendy, well at least they look better than they did, right? Why didn't I buy one of these when I first thought of it?

UPDATE: Apple Store is now open, click here for more details.

There is no place like home

Its great to be back home in beautiful Tunbridge Wells. My wife and I have just spent a while in The Gambia on a bit of a birdwatching binge.
We missed being home quite a lot, me especially whilst laid up in bed ill for most of the holiday with gastric poisoning and pulling muscles in my back.
It just goes to prove that holidays aren't all they are cracked up to be and there is definitely no place like home.
I notice that Disgusted has updated his blog a bit since I was away and there is some interesting new scaffolding next to Costa. Anything else happen whilst I was away?