The Harrogate Arms Café has opened to the public today.
The site, which sits in the Royal Horticultural Society Harlow Carr Gardens, has been closed since 2014.
It was originally built in 1844 by the then-owner of the estate, Henry Wright, along with a Bath House.
During its time, it has seen many guises, including a hotel, Thai restaurant, nightclub and pub.
However, after the RHS bought the site in 2014, it set out to restore the two historic buildings.
Today, it reopened for the first time in a decade as a café.
The Harrogate Arms Café.
Conservative councillor of Killinghall, Hampsthwaite & Saltergate and mayor of Harrogate, Michael Harrison, cut the ribbon alongside Clare Matterson, the director general of the RHS to mark the occasion.
The RHS was granted listed building consent in 2019 and has since spent “several millions” on the renovation process, head of site Liz Thwaite said.
Liz Thwaite.
Ms Thwaite told the Stray Ferret:
“The RHS didn’t have the internal funding for the works back in 2014, but by 2019, when we got the building consent, the funding was then in place internally.
“There has been a lot of unforeseen issues along the way and things popped up that we didn’t expect, like bats roosting and wet weather.”
Inside the café.
Ms Thwaite said the horticultural charity decided to take on the project to “link both the Harrogate Arms and the Bath House back to their historic landscape”.
It wanted to give visitors a garden café, as well as the teahouse and Bettys, and offer “more space” to enjoy the gardens, she added.
A spokesperson for the RHS said at the opening sustainability is “at the core” of the charity and has been central to the renovation process.
They added the café will not offer plastic water bottles or single-use coffee cups, and uses Brazilian coffee from “one of 200 regenerative coffee farms”.
The coffee kiosk.
Ms Thwaite told the Stray Ferret:
“We’re feeling really, really excited about the opening.
“We had hoped it would open sooner, but due to weather issues it hasn’t been possible. But nevertheless we’re still so excited.
“I think customers are going to be delighted with it and it will help grow visitors and memberships to the site. People can walk around the garden and have a lovely coffee or lunch here.
“It will showcase what we grow, as well as offer an important message to encourage people to grow their own produce.”
The RHS hopes to use locally sourced produce at the Harrogate Arms Café, and will source a lot of ingredients from the Harlow Carr kitchen garden.
The charity is also undertaking 2-acres of landscaping works around the café, which includes planting mature tree and digging swales to manage rainfall.
The Harrogate Arms Café is officially open to the public.
It offers indoor and outdoor seating, as well and breakfast, lunch and all-day menus. The cafe will be open during summer garden operating hours (9.30am to 6pm) every day.
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