Visiting Leamington Spa
Many of Warwick's students choose to live in the fashionable Royal Leamington Spa while studying at the University. The town is a short drive from the University campus and offers breadth of entertainment, sites of historical interest, and stunning architecture.
Distance from campus:
8 miles
Entertainment:
Royal Leamington Spa is home to a vast number of pubs, bars and restaurants. University of Warwick students also frequently visit the town’s night-clubs, Mirage and Sugar.
The Royal Spa Centre is an entertainments venue with a theatre and cinema, showcasing a variety of music performances, comedy and dance. The Apollo cinema is also a short walk from The Parade, showing most popular movies.
There is also a Megabowl ten-pin bowling centre in the Shires Retail Park just outside the centre of town.
Shopping:
Leamington Spa is where most of our students choose to go shopping. The Parade (Leamington’s high street) has several high street shops and department stores. The side-streets from The Parade feature lots of specialist shops, gift stores, and art shops. The Royal Priors indoor shopping centre also has a number of high street and specialist stores. Leamington also has a number of nice restaurants covering all price ranges.
Historical Interest:
Originally a small village known as Leamington Priors, Leamington Spa became a town around the beginning of the 19th century. In 1784 the saline springs beneath the village were discovered, and the residents began to build baths around these, claiming that they could cure or relieve a number of disorders. The baths quickly became very popular, resulting in the building of The Royal Pump Room and Baths in 1814. The pump rooms, gardens and bandstand still remain today towards the lower end of The Parade. After World War II the Pump Rooms became a medical centre. In 1996 plans to redevelop the Pump Rooms to include Leamington’s library, museum and art gallery, and later a tourist information centre and small café, were put in place. The new refurbished building opened in 1999.
Leamington is also home to a number of grade II listed gardens in the English Heritage Register of Historic Gardens. Now known as the Jephson Gardens, their history dates back to 1832. The gardens are situated opposite the Pump Rooms.
Access from University:
By car: The quickest route to Leamington Spa from campus is to drive up Gibbet Hill Road, straight over the crossroads on to Stoneleigh Road, then a right-turn on to the A46. Take the next junction off the A46 and follow the signs to Leamington. When the roads are clear this journey takes about 15 minutes.
By bus: The Stagecoach Unibus (U1, U2 and U12) and the National Express Coventry number 11 travel between campus and Leamington Spa. The Stagecoach X17 also collects from Leamington Spa, and, while it doesn't come on to central campus, it does drop off near the Gibbet Hill end of campus. Check the company websites for more information about service times.
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