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Lot Essay
Although Louise Rayner began her career by exhibiting oils at the Royal Academy, she increasingly turned to watercolour subjects after 1860, in which year she also began to exhibit her works with the Society of Women Artists. She was particularly fond of painting street scenes, showing the bustling crowds and the architecture of the towns in which she lived. In 1910 she moved from Chester, where she had lived since 1870, to Tunbridge Wells, and it is likely that the present watercolour dates from the period of her residence in the town.
The Pantiles is a colonnaded walkway in the centre of Tunbridge Wells, which was built as part of the urban improvement programme that followed the discovery of the Chalybeate Spring. Like Bath, Tunbridge Wells became an attractive destination for the wealthy and leisured, and the Pantiles became implicated in the strict social codes of the time. Only gentry were allowed on the 'Upper Walk', which included the Pantile colonnade, while all other ranks of people were only permitted on the 'Lower Walk'. As in Bath, such codes were overseen by the presence of Beau Nash, who was Tunbridge Wells's Master of Ceremonies during the Season. More recently, however, the colonnade has become home to a wide variety of shops and cafés.
The Pantiles is a colonnaded walkway in the centre of Tunbridge Wells, which was built as part of the urban improvement programme that followed the discovery of the Chalybeate Spring. Like Bath, Tunbridge Wells became an attractive destination for the wealthy and leisured, and the Pantiles became implicated in the strict social codes of the time. Only gentry were allowed on the 'Upper Walk', which included the Pantile colonnade, while all other ranks of people were only permitted on the 'Lower Walk'. As in Bath, such codes were overseen by the presence of Beau Nash, who was Tunbridge Wells's Master of Ceremonies during the Season. More recently, however, the colonnade has become home to a wide variety of shops and cafés.