Royal Victoria Place

Over recent weeks, an exhibition has showcased the progress of our schemes at Ely Court and Palm Court as part of a wider enhancement masterplan for Royal Victoria Place. As part of an ongoing programme of engagement, the exhibition has already generated meaningful public feedback and continues to inform the future of RVP in advance of a forthcoming planning submission.

Commissioned by Tunbridge Wells Borough Council as Architect and Design Team Lead, we were invited to identify and reimagine underperforming areas of the centre. Our work forms part of a broader ambition to reposition RVP as a vibrant mixed-use destination, one that is more closely aligned with the evolving needs and character of Tunbridge Wells.

At the heart of the proposals is a three-screen boutique cinema, embedded within a wider leisure-led vision that also introduces new restaurants, competitive socialising and reconfigured retail space. Together, these interventions establish a more varied and distinctive offer, revitalising the eastern quarter of RVP and catalysing activity across the surrounding streets. The scheme will increase and focus footfall, support the evening economy and diversify the centre beyond conventional retail.

Architecturally, the building will stand with civic presence at the prominent junction of Calverley Road and Camden Road, creating a confident new threshold and restoring the centre’s long-missing relationship with the townscape. The design carefully incorporates the retained façade of the historic Friendly Societies Building, placing new leisure and community uses behind a restored and reanimated heritage frontage. Expressive brickwork, informed by the craft traditions of Tunbridge Ware, gives the architecture a richly textured identity, conceived as a contemporary “cabinet of curiosities”.

For more about the Royal Victoria Place progress, visit the engagement website RVP Future