Pump Room Gardens

Park

Explorer Tom

Leamington Spa’s Pump Room Gardens look as if someone told a Victorian health enthusiast to take a proper walk and then gave him a bandstand for company. Beside the Royal Pump Rooms and just north of the River Leam, these five acres let you inspect the town while pretending fresh air does the work. The gardens opened in 1814, when strolling here was reserved for patrons of the adjoining spa. They drank and bathed in the mineral water, then took their exercise among the trees; an excellent arrangement if you could afford admission and enjoyed being told that walking was medicinal. Public access arrived in 1876. Flowerbeds followed, along with the ironwork bandstand that now gives the lawns their unmistakable centrepiece. This little patch has seen more than genteel laps. In 1852, Charles Blondin crossed it on a tightrope before a crowd of 7,000, a stunt that makes a quiet sit on the Victorian-style seating seem positively heroic. Look for the Linden Arches along the lime-tree avenues, the rain garden and York Bridge by the river. The Friends helped restore the arches, keeping the historic layout in use. The gardens are open all day, every day, with paths running between the Pump Rooms and the riverside. Bring a dog on a lead, and leave cycling to the streets; a bike rack waits near the library. The café and toilets are next door in the Pump Rooms, and the town centre is close enough to continue your expedition on foot. If a band strikes up, conduct discreetly. If nobody is playing, conduct anyway: the pigeons have been getting away with far too much.