COLOURING IS COOL

COLOURING BOOK IS TOWN CENTRE PAGE TURNER

The unexpected hit of the summer, did you find a free town centre colouring book for your little ones? (Or you!)

The RTW Together Business Improvement District has created the first Royal Tunbridge Wells colouring book as part of its inaugural Art Week event, which took place from August 22nd-29th.

Featuring familiar scenes from across the town centre, landscapes to colour include Royal Victoria Place, Chapel Place, The High Street, The Ivy, Sankey’s Old Fishmarket, Spa Valley Railway and The Pantiles. Local illustrators were commissioned for

Art Week!

the project, featuring talent from Royal Tunbridge Wells, Tonbridge and Sevenoaks.

The 40-page professionally produced book was completely free to pick up around the town centre from August 22nd, with an initial run of 2k copies given away. Enthusiastic artists were encouraged to scribble their way to success with a colouring competition, completing a page in the book to win £100 hampers of art goodies from either Rymans or M. Saltmarsh. Sue Luck cast her expert eye over the entries as judge, being proprietor of M. Saltmarsh, the oldest indie art shop in England.

BID Director Sarah-Jane Adams is thrilled with the response: “The first town centre colouring book has proven to be very popular, even before launch, with rumours circulating on social media about where to get your hands on one! We really wanted this piece to look exactly like a professional colouring book and the fact that we’re able to supply

it for free enables us to bring extra visitors into businesses who are stocking it. It’s also a real celebration of the beautiful vistas and architecture that make up the centre of Royal Tunbridge Wells, and showcases a mixture of outdoor scenes and business frontages – and grown ups are loving it too!”

One business that saw the demand first hand was Brittens Music, Grove Hill Road: “We had lots of customers ask about the beautiful colouring book as we displayed them throughout our piano showroom. They happily took a copy away for their children, commenting that it was almost too beautiful to colour in and they might keep it as a keepsake of the town!”

Printed by Kall Kwik on Camden Road, the colouring book was a real communityfocused, collaborative effort, from the artists who created the drawings and the local printer that printed each copy, to the town centre businesses that displayed them proudly and the members of the public who took them home to be treasured or coloured in. The unexpected success of the colouring book has proven that when we put Royal Tunbridge Wells and its places and people

ABOVE: ONE OF THE SCENES INCLUDED TO COLOUR, CHAPEL PLACE BY ANNA MORRIS THE MASSAGE COMPANY

BODYWORKS LAB

GRAHAM AT KALL KWIK, CAMDEN ROAD, EXPERTLY PUTS TOGETHER THE COLOURING BOOK

at the heart of what we do, the response is incredibly positive.

“As a BID, our mission is to make our town a fantastic place to live and work and to promote it as such, and the colouring book is a perfect of example of that,” Sarah-Jane concludes. “People have been introduced to businesses they may not have previously known about through their search for a colouring book.”

Businesses that stocked the book included The Amelia Scott, The Plant Base, Sankey’s, Glass by Claudia, Bodyworks Lab, Ruby’s of London, Fuggles Beer Café, Seasalt, Fixio, Stampede, Il Vesuvio, Manic Ceramix and many others, although demand has been incredibly high. RTW Together has limited stock available from our HQ in 52 High Street, if your business would like a supply - or you’d like one for personal use. ■

WHIRLIGIG TOYS

Art Week!

TUNBRIDGE WELLS HOTEL

FUGGLES BEER CAFE

TOWN CENTRE BUSINESSES HAVE BEEN GIVING AWAY THE BOOKS FOR FREE