From its grand architecture to its sweeping parks with opulent flowerbeds, its grand hotels to its lanes of upscale shopping, Harrogate proclaims elegant affluence. That’s a salutary message for Southerners whose ideas of England above the Watford Gap are shaped by headlines about joblessness, low property values and other extreme disparities between struggling North and rich South. There’s much more in these higher elevations than bad news stories and stereotypes.
Like the more internationally-known Bath, Harrogate owes its initial prosperity to the upper classes’ love of “taking the waters” for their health. Though its iron- and sulphur-rich waters were known from the 16th century, the town really took off in the 19th, when late-summer shooting retreats to Scotland became part of high society’s social season. Harrogate was a half-way point on the journey from London, providing a soothing respite from the fashionable whirl. While Bath is a ready-made backdrop for Jane Austen film adaptations, its Northern sister could be the set of Victoria.
Like England’s other spa towns, the economy here has moved beyond the waters, though Harrogate’s Turkish Baths (sadly closed at the moment due to COVID-19) do continue the spa tradition. Unlike other spa towns, however, Harrogate refused to accept genteel decline and focused on the conference industry instead. Its exhibition centre is one of the largest in Europe, bringing more than 350,000 visitors and £150 million in revenue annually (pre-pandemic). All of which means that Harrogate will take a disproportionate hit from the 2020 pandemic, though our experience was of a cheerful, resilient city getting back up to full speed as fast as possible. It will be a long time until anything normal can return, however, given the conference centre is currently kitted out as one of the country’s pop-up Nightingale Hospitals.
It’s a great town for simply loafing about. Green spaces not only ring, but cut right through, the historic centre. Valley Gardens is the most notable; an idyllic spot for strolling planted into a steep valley that widens out into broader fields. It’s dotted with Victorian bandstands, benches, pergolas and tea houses. Flower beds celebrate both the Northern love of vivid annuals and more blowsy, pastel drifts of herbaceous perennials.
Montpelier Gardens, spilling down a hill of the same name, features more cheerful annual bed designs and scores of people on deck chairs or simply sprawled on the lawns. The weather was glorious and Spirit of Harrogate, the Slingsby Gin shop, was distilling cocktails from their storefront beside the park.
Montpelier Parade, with Betty’s famous tea house at the corner, marks the edge of the Montpelier District, an architecturally charming few blocks full of independent boutiques and restaurants. (Harrogate has the national chains, too, but they tend to be up and across the brow of the town centre’s hill, with the more upscale brands on James Street.)
Affluence and a thriving conference business fuels a cosmopolitan food scene. Visitors are almost required to try one of Betty’s “fat rascals”, somewhere between a scone and a rock cake, studded with currants and candied fruit. If the queues are too long, it’s worth noting that Betty’s has a presence at the RHS Harlow Carr gardens as a full restaurant, a take-away bakery counter (both outside the garden walls and accessible to all) and a stall within the garden itself. The last is probably the easiest way to try this Harrogate icon without a long wait.
Farrah’s Sweet Shop at the bottom of the Montpelier Quarter is equally famous, in this case for toffees sold in a distinctive blue and silver tin. The shop, lined with glass jars of different sweets and colourful tins of premium teas, looks like it hasn’t changed since Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee.
On the restaurant scene, I’d enthusiastically recommend Domo, a small and very authentic Japanese place in the heart of the Montpelier district. (Booking essential) We had beautiful sushi cut and prepared by a proper master behind a counter, grilled Tokyo-style eel on rice, light-as-air tempura, and takoyaki (fried octopus balls) as good as we had in Osaka, the city famed for them. In fact, I can honestly say that this is the best Japanese food I’ve ever had in the UK. (With apologies to our local and much loved Kyoto Kitchen in Winchester, to which renown food critic A.A. Gill awarded that accolade.)
Lucia’s Wine Bar and Grill is also worth seeking out, on Ripon Road as it climbs up a hill, out of the centre of town, past the conference centre. Harrogate isn’t all Victorian, evidenced by this purpose-built modern restaurant that can open much of its glass front to the fresh air. (Handy in a pandemic.) The chef has a solid grasp of Italian basics ... excellent mushroom arancini and a succulent spaghetti with prawns and fennel sausage in a fresh tomato sauce ... but there are also local adaptations. Smoked haddock puttanesca was a bit too innovative to tempt me, but I was glad to see creativity on the menu.
Sadly, I can not recommend our hotel. In fact, I’d warn anyone to avoid the Doubletree by Hilton Majestic Hotel at all costs. This is counter-intuitive, as The Majestic is one of the grandest remnants of Harrogate’s Edwardian splendour and dominates the town with its striking, pale-green dome. You’d expect that something so historically significant and well located would live up to its legacy, but the service is woeful and housekeeping haphazard. (The latter a bit worrying in a pandemic situation.) The interiors are magnificent, but most of the grand spaces are set aside for conference or wedding use. Our room enjoyed enormous Edwardian proportions with French doors leading out onto a balcony, but the doors were sealed shut and the room lacked enough furniture or decorative touches to give it any character. If you have the misfortune to stay in those second-floor rooms during a heat wave, you’ll be cursed with warmth of another type, as the sealed doors mean the only air coming into the room is from a small transom above each.
The much-advertised spa is a small indoor pool with a steam room, sauna and whirlpool off the pool deck. All would be crowded with any more than four people using them, and everything but the pool is currently closed due to COVID-19. The £10 “deal” to get in that’s advertised in hotel promotions as a benefit feels like a rip-off once you’ve paid it. You might attempt to assuage your frustration by taking advantage of their two-for-one cocktails in the very attractive bar, frescoed with scenes of Georgian lords and ladies frolicking in the spa towns of England. But don’t be in a hurry, as the hapless bar staff may take half an hour or more to serve you. We had some decent food in the restaurant, but it tends to come out of the kitchen in erratic bursts, and with a casual disregard to allergies or what you ordered.
Despite the travails of our accommodation, we loved Harrogate. The area is so rich in tourism possibilities that our five days flew. We opted to explore the grand seat of the Lascelles family at Harewood House, the RHS’ newest garden at Harlow Carr, the atmospheric ruins and gardens at Fountains Abbey and the delightful cathedral at Ripon. You can also do highly picturesque driving tours of the Yorkshire Dales and North York Moors national parks. We were blessed with good weather and magnificent views for the first, but fog and mist were so heavy for the second that my entire impression of the moors is a strip of road with a narrow margin of heather and sheep.
For more on these glorious sights, read on...
No comments:
Post a Comment