Essential Hotels > England > Gloucestershire > Cheltenham

Cheltenham is England’s most complete and well-maintained Regency town, with stunning architecture typical of the era making up its beautiful town centre. Cheltenham originates in the county of Gloucestershire, and is roughly 10 miles east of Gloucester at the area where the River Chelt materializes from the western Cotswolds. It is a established tourist destination, not only because of its superbly preserved architecture and thought-provoking history, but also because of its accessible location via the A40 from Oxford and London, as well as its role as a centre for the region’s shopping and culture. The town is endowed with a huge number of exceptional luxury hotels, in keeping with the large number of visitors the town attracts every year. An enormous quantity of these visitors come to Cheltenham for the horse racing; Cheltenham is the home of National Hunt Racing in the UK, and the Cheltenham Gold Cup and Cheltenham Festival are two of the most impressive fixtures on the racing calendar.

The earliest recognized history of Cheltenham is of an Anglo-Saxon monastery, established in Celtenhomme in 803, and King Alfred the Great allegedly adored this amiable residence on the banks of the River Chelt. The town gradually developed, with markets and fairs aiding the Cheltenham Town’s affluence, yet it was not until the 18th Century that Cheltenham’s true calling arrived: Three mineral springs were revealed in the town in 1716 by a flock of pigeons, according to legend, and a pump room was built in 1738, as Cheltenham became an up-to-the-minute spa destination for the English upper classes, who participated in the consumption of iron and sulphur rich waters for their supposed health benefits. King George III visited the town in 1788, and it is from the Regency era that much of today’s handsome Georgian buildings, wide tree-lined avenues, and open spaces were constructed. Although the popularity of the spa deteriorated, Cheltenham itself continued to flourish, and the town is esteemed for its tradition of workmanship, apparent with the manifestation of high-tech companies in the Gloucestershire area today.