The Lancers
Royal Tunbridge Wells

Tunbridge Wells is a long, thin town with all the chain stores you would expect well represented at Victoria Shopping Centre at the top (turn left at the lights at the end of Church Road), and some wonderful antique and curio shops on the historic Pantiles down at the bottom.

Joining these two areas are Mount Pleasant (right at the lights), which has some interesting and unusual independent shops such as Maison (pretty home furnishings), and then the High Street, which contains some very upmarket boutiques, including La Belle Femme, and excellent jewellers. On your way through to the Pantiles, where you might well want to sample the spa waters, you will pass through Chapel Place which boasts more intriguing little shops including a lovely shoe shop, Stillwell.

Don’t miss Aphrodisia, a wonderful lingerie shop (turn right after the train station in Mount Pleasant into Vale Road and you’ll see it on your right). You can get a professional bra fitting here and you might be surprised to find you’ve been wearing the wrong size! They sell a large range of sizes including nightwear, corsetry and swimwear.

Also well worth a visit is Camden Road which contains some rather interesting, bohemian outlets and an art gallery. This road starts on the far side of the pedestrian precinct at Royal Victoria Shopping Centre.

If all this has whetted your appetite to do some major shopping and actually buy your own little piece of Tunbridge Wells, you will find many of the estate agents clustered along the High Street.