Leamington Spa & Compton Verney
Saturday 17th August - 8.30am from Northwich
Other pick-up points available
£29.00 - book online or call 07932927694

Royal Leamington Spa has wide boulevards, stunning architecture and award-winning parks provide a sophisticated backdrop to this Regency town. The value of the mineral springs was known in the middle ages, but it was not until 1784 that the small village began rediscovering its saline springs and started building baths around some of them. In July 1814 ‘The Royal Pump Room and Baths’, designed and built by C.S. Smith of Warwick at a cost of £30,000, were officially opened. They now house a museum, art gallery and information centre. Also don’t miss Jephson Gardens.
After lunch we visit Compton Verney, home to six diverse collections of nationally and internationally significant art from around the world, including British Folk Art, Chinese bronzes, British Portraits and works from Northern Europe and Naples. You can also find objects of inspiration and original textile designs by Enid Marx in our Marx-Lambert Collection. The gallery is set within 120 acres of Grade II listed park, landscaped by Capability Brown, the most eminent landscape architect of the eighteenth-century. Today the grounds still reflect his ‘pleasure grounds’ of sweeping grassland, ornamental lake and Cedars of Lebanon for which Brown is famous.

Exhibitions include new work by Gayle Chong Kwan alongside Compton Verney’s internationally renowned collection of Neolithic Chinese Bronzes plus “A Spirit Inside” bringing together a selection of works spanning over 100 years exploring how women and non-binary artists have grappled with the notion and sense of ‘spirit’, with themes ranging from mythology and internal contemplation to external, often political, expression. For the first time in thirty years, you will be able to see a rare masterpiece reunited. Bringing together the central panel from The National Gallery of Scotland’s collection, with the original wings in Compton Verney’s collection, the magnificent Lamentation Altarpiece will take centre stage in our Northern European collection.

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