Anke: Royal Tunbridge Wells

Opera House Daubings

David and I received a very interesting email yesterday from reader, Alan Round, who'd seen some photos of the Opera House on our Tunbridge Wells Project website.

It turns out that Alan is the archivist of the Tunbridge Wells Operatic and Dramatic Society (TWODS) who performed there as TWOADS until its closure in 1966.

Artistic daubings on the wall of the Opera House changing rooms.

Alan had seen our images of the artistic daubings in the old changing room walls and knew exactly what they meant. I shall let Alan take over the story:

A barrel or two of beer was always kept in the mens changing room during show week and cast and backstage bought pints for themselves and each other. The amount drawn was pencilled on the wall using the five bar gate method. We settled up at the end of the week and the tally was then struck through. The records went years back along the walls. The photos indicate the last three shows - "Song of Norway" being the last in 1966. My name should be in the list of drinkers in "Perchance to Dream" and possibly "HMS Pinafore".

And here is Alan's name on the wall, although it seems he was rather lagging behind in the drinking at this show. Thank you, Alan, for a wonderful little nugget of history.

You can just make out Alan's name right in the middle.

We'd both love to hear from you if you've got any lovely history stories like this, why not drop us an email at The Project.

Oxfam Bookfest Walk

Sixteen of us gathered outside the museum on a gorgeously sunny Sunday morning. We were here to take a tour of town, a tour organised for the Oxfam Bookfest by a local blue badge tour guide, Catherine.

The tour group walks along York Road.

You may think that taking a tour of a town you live in would be pointless, after all you live here and know everything right? Boy you couldn’t be further wrong. This tour was specifically aimed at locals who wanted to know the deepest darkest secrets of the Wells.

Being a “New Town” tour, we were told that there would be no visiting the obvious hotspots and we’d be concentrating on our more recent history.

I’ll give you a brief rundown of the tour and some of the highlights as I really want you to go buy yourself a ticket and enjoy it for yourself.

Starting at the museum we had a brief talk about the civic buildings and what they had replaced. When shown some of the old images of Calverley Terrace the group collectively let out a lot of ooohs and there was some furious head shaking going on. Leaving Civic Way the tour walked towards the Opera House, it was supposed to take in the Adult Education Centre but as it is currently undergoing some restoration that was skipped and it was straight into the Opera House for a brief behind the scenes tour.

We all assembled in the fabulously named Crush Room Bar for another history talk. Everyone was then invited to take a walk out onto the balcony to take a look out over the new town. Living up to its name there literally was a crush to get out.

The group take it in turns being careful not to disturb the ghosts of the haunted box.

We then climbed to the dress circle to hear some more history about the performances that once were and the history of the building’s construction. There were a few gasps of disbelief to the fact that the butchers underneath used to be a Sainsburys (see comments before for more), amongst other fascinating tidbits.

If you book the tour you’ll be able to find out who once raided the opera house, who Bambi the Cat was, and what is missing from the ceiling. You’ll also be able to find out which of the boxes is haunted. Legend has it that three builders fell from the scaffolding when working on the ceiling and two of them died. As these two used to sit and have their lunch in same box every day they are said to now haunt it. Everyone naturally made a beeline for the box to see if they could feel anything. Can you smell their ham sarnies and tea in there?

Heritage Open Weekend 2010

The damp end to the Summer did nothing to dampen my spirit as this weekend is Heritage Open Weekend 2010 here in Tunbridge Wells and the opening of many of our previously inaccessible buildings to the public. One of the best weekends of the calendar.

Detail of the ceiling of the Opera House.

Thursday always sees a few attractions open early so I took the opportunity to have a look around the Opera House on Mount Pleasant, something that I have never done before, strange I know.

Sign above the door.

Interior view of Opera House.

Our tour of the famous building took us from the entrance (have you ever noticed the names of the two separate entrances over the top of the doors?) up the closed-off stairs to the original bar above, this room has the balcony in it you can see from the road. Some of the original wooden bar furnishings still adorn the room, although now appear to serve as shelving for tea and biscuits.

View of the school from the playground.

We climbed right to the top of the building, well almost, to the recently restored Dress Circle when you can access the balcony of seats to get a commanding view of the stage below which is now home to throngs of people enjoying a pint as this opera house is now a pub.

From up in the gods the details of the ceiling can really be appreciated all decorated in red, gold and blue. During the War an incendiary bomb went right through the roof at this point and landed on one of the proscenium arch stanchions above the stage, the damage wasn't great but there was rather a large hole to be repaired. I have to be honest and say that the Opera House really would dearly love some care and attention and a few pounds spent on it to really bring it back to its former glory. I heartily recommend a tour around to see the great details lurking and hidden within.

Next time you're going in for a pint, use the right-hand side entrance as this was supposedly the side that the gentry entered the building where they were greeted and their hats and coats taken, the other side patrons were left to find their seats themselves. I'm not too sure if Wetherspoons still run this policy though.

Saturday morning saw the opening of the rest of the Heritage locations. I headed straight over to another place that I'd never visited before, St. Barnabas School. Here some of the pupils were giving the tours around the building but I managed to bag myself the font of all school knowledge, Dave Prodrick. David took me around the Victorian corridors which reminded me of my old school days, not in Victorian times I hasten to add, and also around the highly decorated classrooms.

A rather jolly welcome to school, even on a wet day.

This school, opened by John Stone Wigg in 1896 was originally one of the schools for the poor, you can tell this apparently by the electricity substation that was built right next to the playground many years ago, the building being a place that no-one cared about. Thankfully the only part of history that today's school retains is the wonderful three storey brick and sandstone architecture as it is now an excellent place of learning.

Thanks very much for the informative tour, David.

A view of the Harrison and Harrison organ.

A view of the church interior.

The most interesting visit of my weekend so far though was probably the most modern building of the whole schedule, St. Augustine's Church. This church dates back to 1837, although not in this current form, the original Roman Catholic chapel was at the junction of Grosvenor Road and Hanover Road, right where Tesco stands today. The congregation grew in numbers over the years and the Jesuits decided to relocate and sold the land to Tesco who demolished the beautiful original chapel in the 1960s. Criminal.

The only surviving piece of the old chapel.

The plans for the new building were approved in 1974 and the work took 12 months and cost £177,500 to complete. It's a strange church architecturally as the Presbytery, where the priest lives, is actually underneath the church itself. This is because the building is on one of our famous steep hills so to keep the main hall on one level the hill was infilled with living quarters.

For such an unassuming building on the outside, the inside is quite interesting to see, it feels very modern and somewhat European in its design with very thin windows surrounding the entire hall and a very large timbered ceiling above on which sits a rather whimsical scaffold-style cross, pop outside around the back to have a look.

If you do pop in, take notice of the big church organ in the centre of the main hall with its rather amusing button "Swell to Great." I didn't push it.

There is one piece of the old church that still remains to this day, very sad news but at least one piece survives, and that is the simple wooden statue of Jesus who watches over people's prayers over by the confessional chambers. The statue, just like its church surroundings, also has the appearance of the modern era, it's a delightfully simple yet elegantly carved piece of wood that looks like it was hewn yesterday. He also had two small lights on the wall next to him, a red one saying Wait and a green one saying Come In. He was telling me to wait. So I did. And whilst I did my attention was drawn to a notice on the wall telling parishioners to remember the wonderful Stephen Upsall, our recently passed friend from Trinity Theatre. I took a few minutes to pay my respects, light a candle and bid farewell.

A quick game of hopscotch on the way home from school.

Pint-Sized Dairy King

When you added that splash of milk into your tea this morning you had probably bought the carton from a supermarket. It wasn't so long ago that it came from the back of a milk float and was placed with a satisfying chink on your doorstep by a friendly milkman.

Why am I mentioning milk? Well, it is because of the sign pictured below that adorns the side of a newsagents in the St. John's Quarter. Things like this don't normally survive and we found out today that it is because it is protected, in fact the entire front of the newsagent's is protected, and because of that I decided to delve into its history.

It is this dairy mentioned on the side of the wall, that your milkman would've come from not so long ago. That dairy was owned at one stage by a fascinating man called John Brown (pictured top right).

John Brown (1845-1934) was small in stature, large in business acumen and a bit of a taskmaster. He started his dairy in 1870 from the back of Sion House with the delivery men in bowler hats carrying the milk in yoke and pails over their shoulders, or if they had to go further afield, on the back of horse-drawn carts.

It wasn't long before he'd gained lots of customers and had moved to larger premises on the corner of Berkeley Road, which is still there today although now contains an office. Next time you're sitting outside the Compasses or picking up your fish and chips from the Downtown Fish Bar have a look, the horses were parked in where the side door is now.

The sign says "rebuilt 1878" because the dairy was gutted by fire.

His business thrived and kept on expanding, by 1888 he'd built a larger dairy on the Mount Sion site and purchased other local dairies and even farms, he eventually controlled dairies in Vale Road, Camden Road, The Pantiles and St. John's Road, and farms in Great Culverden, Ramslye, Mount Ephraim and Frant. All these farms and dairies supplied fresh milk to the Mount Sion site where it was prepared and put into churns for delivery up to twice a day to local homes, actually to most homes in the area. It was said that if you ran out of milk, John Brown's Dairies could get you a fresh pint within ten minutes of milking the cow, not even Ocado can promise that.

Some of the lovely details adorning the old dairy building.

Mr Brown was doing rather well by this point, he had purchased the Neville bakery and restaurant, picked up the South Eastern Hotel and in 1898 had sold the milk business. With all this wealth he decided to run for Council, and just like everything else he turned his hand to he was very successful, standing unopposed from 1906 until 1912, he also managed to find time to be a director of the Opera House.

Of course you can still get your pinta milk delivered by a milkman, and it will come just 100yds from where this old sign stands today, an old sign that is one of the last reminders of one of the biggest small names in Tunbridge Wells history.

Tomorrow when you are picking up your newspaper, walk a little further and into the St. John's Quarter and take a look at the details of the window, or if you can't manage that have a look below instead.

A Pint at the Opera

One of our most captivating views for new visitors, and probably most ignored view through familiarity for locals, that are heading towards the main precinct of town is the imposing Grade II listed Opera House.

It all started in the late 19th Century when our town was lacking decent provision for theatre, so it was decided that to celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee in 1897 we should have a grand building just for the purpose.

An unfortunate series of delays meant that the foundation stones weren't finally laid until 1901, by the then mayor Charles Fletcher Lutwidge, local MP Fred Horner and the actor Herbert Beerbohm-Tree, but by 1902 it was finally finished.

Completed by the local builder John Jarvis, and designed by architect John P Briggs, the Opera House was built at a cost of just £31,000. Early designs show that there was a plan for a perpetual flame on the top of the main dome, but common sense dictated that a place was made for a statue of Hermes instead, although that angered local residents to the point of removal (more of which can be read in this article). The inside was fitted out at a cost of £5,000 with 1,100 seats of crimson plush, ornate decoration of gold lining the walls and ceilings painted delicately with matching colours, most of which survives to this day.

Alterations were made over the years, including a 23 ton electropneumatic organ being installed in the late 1920s, but by 1931 the fashion for the theatre was being overtaken by the era of film, so in August of that year the Opera House was transformed into a cinema, including the removal of the huge organ, which actually survives today in New Zealand of all places.

Another change of social pleasures forced the building to once again adapt and from the late 60s it became a bingo hall until finally revising itself once again in the late 90s as a public house.

As it wasn't designed as a house of opera, more of a house of theatre, why exactly was it called an Opera House? Charles Strange tells us that "the good people of Tunbridge Wells looked askance at any sort of theatrical performance".

You can actually watch operas today in the grand house and then next is at the start of February, click here for more details.

I'm sure everyone is guilty of walking past every day but next time you wander by, take a minute to just cast your gaze skyward and just appreciate how beautiful it is, or if you have time pop in for a pint and wonder at the details.