Down on the River Leam near the Pump Room Gardens is a stone ramp leading into the water — the so-called Elephant Wash, used by the elephants of Chipperfield's Circus when the travelling show wintered in Leamington during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Circus animals were walked through the town to bathe in the river here, a practice that was entirely normal at the time and is now one of those local facts that takes visitors by surprise.
The ramp itself is modest — just cut stone sloping into the water — but the signage explaining its history makes it worth a look if you are already walking along the river. It sits between the Pump Rooms and the weir.