Anke: Royal Tunbridge Wells

Today was the So Create a Difference Exhibition's open day, the opportunity for the people of Tunbridge Wells to submit their ideas for the future of our town.

Even before the doors opened people were queuing to get in and have a look. I was only in there for an hour or so and in that time hundreds of people passed through the door. If this doesn't show how passionate we are about our town then I don't know what would. People want action. People want change.

It was something really lovely to see people of all ages grabbing coloured pens and scribbling designs onto pieces of paper. Lots of the architects responsible for the concepts on display on the walls were on hand to help people get their ideas out of their brains and onto the paper. I can't wait to see some of the amazing ideas that you have all come up with. Stay tuned and I will bring you some of them when I can.

If you missed the action today then there is still plenty of time to see the displays, albeit without taking part, as they are on show until Tuesday 29th January. Bravo to RIBA South East, James Galpin and Stuart Page for doing something tremendous like this. I'm really looking forward to seeing what happens and bringing you all the results.

Click to see some photos from the morning's frenzied activity.

The So Create a Difference Exhibition opened today in Royal Victoria Place showcasing some fabulous concepts for the future of our town.

Jenny, James, Stuart and Mike from So Create a Difference.

The exhibition showcases fifteen or so local architects who have a passion for Tunbridge Wells and want to see it evolve into something more fantastic than it already is. People have grown tired of seeing the town centre resist progress, especially the Ritz Cinema site, and this group are hoping to kickstart the next redevelopment of our town with this display of ideas. Let's just hope it works.

James posts up one of the concept boards.

The real beauty of this exhibition is the fact that you can contribute some of your ideas too, all you have to do is pop along on Saturday from 10:00. Architects will be on hand to help turn your gem of an idea into a drawing so don't worry if you're not too sharp with a pencil.

James' superb Museum and Art Gallery concept. Copyright James Galpin at HazleMcCormackYoung LLP Chartered Architects.

I have to say that I was blown away by the concepts on display, one of which I think we should start building tomorrow. The plan was the brainchild of James Galpin, whose idea of making our Museum and Art Gallery into a building worthy of its contents, and our town, deserves real close study. Please TWBC, please please please build this.

James' superb Museum and Art Gallery concept. Copyright James Galpin at HazleMcCormackYoung LLP Chartered Architects.

How much would having a Museum and Art Gallery like this improve our local economy? It would entice tourists from miles and miles away to come and visit us, it would bring jobs, income, and attract many other businesses. It's a no-brainer. This is the new design I have inside my head for what the future of the Civic Centre should be. It must be built. Please!

James' superb Museum and Art Gallery concept. Copyright James Galpin at HazleMcCormackYoung LLP Chartered Architects.

The other idea which I think will be a firm favourite, although probably won't be built, but it should, is the idea pitched by the students of Skinners Kent Academy for the Ritz Cinema site. A zoo! Yes, a town centre zoo! How unbelievably brilliant would that be? Imagine walking up Mount Pleasant and seeing a giraffe poking his head over the fence. Total genius.

The Tunbridge Wells Zoo. Genius. Copyright Students at The Skinners' Kent Academy.

The Tunbridge Wells Zoo. Genius. Copyright Students at The Skinners' Kent Academy.

I think a zoo would be a wonderful draw for tourism and the funfair would keep everyone entertained all year long. Can you imagine falling asleep at night with the gibbering of monkeys and the trumpeting of an elephant carrying over the night air. Very cool eh?

The boards had only been up five minutes and lots of people were taking an interest.

I very highly recommend that you take a quarter of an hour of your day on Saturday to pop along to see the exhibition and see some of the other fabulous concepts on display and perhaps even take part, but if you can't then the boards will be available to see in the windows of the old Zoola Fish shop (next to Thorntons at the Five Ways Entrance) until Tuesday 29th January.

David and I were recently on an underground shoot at Salomons, and in a brief period of downtime I was making idle conversation with Clive, one of the groundsmen, when out of the blue, he said "did you know that the sundial on King Charles the Martyr was one of a matching pair?"

The Sundial on the side of King Charles the Martyr Church.

An odd thing to suddenly blurt out I think you’ll agree. You can probably guess my reaction, it was halfway between intrigue and gibbering wreck. I had to know more. Like a mad fan asking for a star’s autograph I scrabbled around for some paper for Clive to draw me a map of where this mysterious sundial was.

As soon as I got back home I changed out of my dirty clothes (a long story) then grabbed the map from my pocket and headed off at top speed in the direction of Claremont School.

I hunted around trying to find it, looking everywhere - up and down the road, in and out of alleyways, nosing over garden gates, even resorting to Google Street View to help me. I’m sure I looked very suspicious, like a burglar scouting for open windows or something. It looked as if Clive's doodle would only get me so far and I’d be going home sundialless, and then I saw it. Well I saw part of it - the gnomon was poking out from the side of a house. The problem was I was on the wrong side of the fence in the wrong road. Drat. I sprinted around the other side into Cambridge Gardens.

The Cambridge Gardens Sundial.

Breathlessly I knocked on the door. Blast, nobody home. I grabbed a pen from my bag and scribbled a quick note on the back of a card and posted it through the letterbox, really not expecting to get any reply.

Well what do you know, that very evening my faith in the wonderful friendly people of Tunbridge Wells was proven as a new email arrived from the owners, Tony and Peggy.

"Thanks for your note. Unfortunately we know nothing about it! The house was built in 1901 by Edmund Burke Harris whose initials are engraved in a brick on the front of the house. At that time the Claremont school playing field was just a field so why put up a sundial? (Assuming it is that old). When decorating we have found traces of a heavy 'Tudor' style so maybe Mr Harris just liked old things. He must have been confident that nothing was going to be built on the field."

A drawing of the King Charles the Martyr Church Sundial taken from The Book of Sundials by Mrs. Alfred Gatty, published 1872.

Alas my history hunt ends almost as soon as it had begun as I couldn't find any more information about this sundial, could it have been a copy made by someone who really loved the one on the church? Could it be made by the same manufacturer? You have to admit, it is very similar, especially when comparing it with the drawing above, in fact the drawing looks more like the Cambridge Gardens sundial than the church one.

So, do you think it's a pair for the one on King Charles the Martyr Church? Whatever it is it's a lovely little snippet of Tunbridge Wells architectural history.

A huge thank you to Tony and Peggy, and the team and Tunbridge Wells Museum for their help in making this post.

Right, new year new beginnings. Let's start as we mean to go on and take a look at a group of people who want to get their hands on the cinema site.

There surely can’t be one person reading this that doesn’t want to see the Ritz Cinema Site redeveloped, and numerous other parts of town come to that. I'm sure we've all got ideas of what we'd like to see on the site in our brains but getting them down onto paper is another matter. Well, now a group of people who know exactly how to do just that have got together to produce their own visions for Royal Tunbridge Wells in the 21st Century, and they need your help.

Architects Stuart Page and James Galpin have created So Create A Difference. I happen to know James a little from Twitter so persuaded him to have a little chat. Below are his responses to my questions which in his own words don't give too much away so you really should spare some time to see their exhibition (details at end of this post).

This exhibition and workshop is a terrific idea, James, but what was the straw that broke camel's back and made you start it?
I'm not alone in being frustrated about the apparent freeze on development within the town. A survey from the early noughties asked residents what their favourite piece of modern architecture was in the town. The response was the Meadow Road car park opposite Fenwicks. Whilst it isn't a particularly offensive building I do find it a hard one to love, and the idea that this was the best we have to offer in terms of modern development really woke me up to the issue. Things haven't got a lot better since then with little modern development happening and lots of sites laying dormant which directly impact the quality of the town and its economic development. I have tried on several occasions to offer my services to the council to come up with a vision for the town which would help inform future developments and avoid the trap of choosing the future based only upon financial considerations, but a suitable opportunity never seemed to arise, so I decided it was time to organize a well spirited form of 'creative rebel uprising'. 'So Create A Difference' was then born.

Can you briefly explain the group, who is it made up of and how did you all get together?
The professional team is made up of a group of local architects who share my passion for how the town develops. We meet once a month over a beer (an event christened #twarchie by Mike Goode of the Twitter community) to discuss current issues relating to our profession as well as local issues. Several Twarchie attendees have given their support to the SoCreate event and support from the local Region of the Royal Institute of British Architects has secured other participants. There is no control over the ideas provided by each team member, but we organised which team would be responsible for which site, to ensure as much of the town was reviewed as possible.

Can you give us a little taster of your ideas?
The best I can give without giving the surprise element away are some graphics we provided for the competition to redesign the Cinema Site back in 2008. Unfortunately none of the six schemes designed made it to fruition, but many of the ideas are as relevant now to when they were produced three years ago.

What is the likelihood that any of your ideas will make it into production, or is that not the point?
The ideas coming to fruition would be wonderful, but I'm not expecting it. The main reason for having this event is to inspire commitment to the town from both residents and Council alike. Tunbridge Wells is a beautiful town and one to be proud of, but the blight is gradually setting in and the aspiration of the residents appears to be suffering. If the event can articulate ideas on how the town can develop, with suggestions made by the architects and good ideas given by the public, then these thoughts can be presented to the Council, who will hopefully take the concepts into consideration as time moves on. Along the way the people of Tunbridge Wells will hopefully be inspired into making their voice heard about their town and perhaps be reminded of some of its redeeming features too.

Have you integrated any old TW elements, such as Decimus Burton styles, into the designs or are you looking to the future?
The team has a rich mix of architects, featuring modernists and conservators alike. There will hopefully be something for all tastes in the ideas, with more input hopefully coming from the public open day when the town people can tell us what they consider to be the important elements that make their town. Sorry - still not giving anything away am I?

How can the public get behind you and perhaps even contribute?
Contribution from the public is the prime reason for organizing this event. We can very easily make designs for the town, but if they don't represent the town dweller's wishes then we would simply be just another heavy hand being imposed on a town that doesn't support the concepts. So the real work will be done on 26th January 2013 in the former Zoola Fish shop in the entrance to the RVP. We will have sketch pens at the ready and the space will be staffed with the participating architects to respond and draw for the visitors. All ideas will then be worked into a book which we will present to the Council on behalf of the town. I'd also like to have the work exhibited at the Gallery and online and would love a follow up feature on your blog if you're willing.

I think the cinema site development should be more about bringing tourists to TW than providing for locals, hence I'm not really a fan of shops or offices. I think we should have a huge museum, arts centre and creative spaces wrapped in an amazingly designed building that people would travel here just to see. Am I going to be excited by some of the teams plans or are you designing commercial properties into the design to generate profit?
The cultural offer in TW is certainly something that needs a boost. Hastings has a new gallery, as do Margate and Eastbourne. We may not have a coastline but we can still support a better cultural offer. A recent survey asked the town why they came to Tunbridge Wells centre. Most people answered that the reason for their visit was to shop, which is possibly only true because that's what is currently available to do. I would have preferred the questionnaire to ask why people travel from TW to London, if not to work. Then we go about offering more of that to keep people in the town. A gallery and a better arts building would be high on my list and I agree would form a real magnet for visitors to the town. The hotels and supporting services can then follow when demand increases.

A rather intriguing idea for a tunnel under Mount Pleasant?

Does the group have its sights set on any other spots in town? Union Square or the Civic Centre for instance? Any place you'd really love to get your teeth into?
There are 14 sites being reviewed, 12 of which have been allocated teams. These range from the Union House site in the south, up to the Arriva Bus garage in the north. The Hospital site is obviously a key development site and we are going to try and feature the recent designs for that site within the exhibition if the developers agree.

This project is being funded by the Royal Institute of British Architects West Kent Branch and by the RIBA’s Local Initiative Fund. Why did they get involved? Do they usually fund interesting projects like this or are they really serious about wanting to make a difference in Tunbridge Wells?
Funding has been provided by RIBA regional Local Initiative fund and the local Branch of which I was chair until last year. The RIBA invites applications for funding based upon set criteria to further the cause of architecture and in developing the public perception on the value of good architecture. This event very neatly fit their funding criteria.

Is anyone in the group incorporating a cinema into their design?
Come along on the 26th January and you'll see for yourself!

Thanks for your time, James, and I am really looking forward to sharing the follow-up feature here.

You can visit the exhibition at Royal Victoria Place between The Perfume Shop and Thorntons from Thursday 24th January, it'll be window-based with a drop-in on Saturday 26th January from 10am-4pm; the exhibition ends Tuesday 29th January. You can also visit their Facebook page to keep up to date.

Make sure you find some time to get along on Saturday and make a contribution. You never know, your idea could be standing there in a few years time.

We can now finally bring you an exclusive look inside the new Tunbridge Wells Hotel on The Pantiles, and it looks fantastic.

Panorama of the Bridal Honeymoon Suite of the hotel.

It was my wedding anniversary and we got the call to go spend the morning in the bridal honeymoon suite at the new hotel. When I say we I mean David and I, not the wife, she was left at home whilst we documented this brand new refurbishment for our Tunbridge Wells Project. I was popular that day I can tell you.

We've just started to add the images online to the Project so keep checking back soon and I'll update this post when more photos get posted.

Click to see more photographs of the new hotel.