Royal Leamington Spa in Warwickshire (West Midlands). With 50,000 residents and pristine regency architecture, Leamington Spa seems like any other scenic countryside settlement. But this Midlands town, once a hotspot for holidaying Victorian. Zephyr Lounge: Fantastic venue - See 6 traveler reviews, 6 candid photos, and great deals for Leamington Spa, UK, at Tripadvisor. L eamington Spa, or Royal Leamington Spa if you want to get all monarchic about it, is a spa town in Warwickshire, with a population of just 55,000 according to a 2011 census. Despite its small. Mallory Court, near Leamington Spa in Warwickshire, is part of the Eden Collection (Bovey Castle, Brockencote Hall et al). It recently added a large ESPA spa and more rooms in addition to those.
With 50,000 residents and pristine regency architecture, Leamington Spa seems like any other scenic countryside settlement. But this Midlands town, once a hotspot for holidaying Victorian aristocrats desperate to bathe in its healing waters, has quietly become one of the UK’s video game industry biggest hubs.
AAA titles including Far Cry, Little Big Planet and Forza were all developed in a slice of rural Warwickshire known in the industry as “the silicon spa”. One in every 50 people in Leamington works for a games developer, and the industry contributes over £100m to local GDP. So how did a small town in the Midlands become a miniature Silicon Valley?
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“It’s like something out of a fairytale,” says Jordan Erica Webber, a games journalist who has been living in Leamington for the last ten years. “The story goes in the 80s there were two pairs of brothers, the Darling brothers and the Oliver twins, who started out making games in their bedrooms as teenagers and eventually managed to start their own companies.”
In 1986, the Darlings founded Codemasters, which became one of the early pioneers in the UK gaming scene. The Olivers, who initially worked at Codemasters, would go on to set up their own company, Blitz Games. “These companies grew and grew and grew, and then at a certain point they started to splinter off and the people who left – having gained experience at Codemasters and Blitz – would form their own studios, and those studios would splinter and so on,” says Webber. That splintering is integral to a growing sector where smaller startup studios make up 99.5 per cent of UK games companies and generate the vast majority of the sector’s economic output.
Royal Leamington Spa
Royal Leamington Spa is a beautiful and prosperous town located in the heart of Warwickshire. With a current population of around 50,000, the town’s growth was largely due to the natural spa springs that were discovered and commercialised in the nineteenth century.
The Visitor Information Centre team provides a friendly and helpful service with up-to-date information and a wealth of knowledge about Royal Leamington Spa and the local area.
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They can supply advice and information on everything from accommodation to architecture, to what’s on at the local theatres. You’ll find them at Visitor Information Centre, see below for contact details.