The crusade to save Harrogate’s high street

Being general manager of one of the most prestigious stores on the most prestigious shopping street in Harrogate, Nick Hubbert has clear views on how to revive the town centre.

“We need to play to our strengths – beauty, flowers. Not rush down the route to do many things, like pedestrianisation.

“Let’s get through covid first. It’s not just about cycle lanes and the area around the station.”

Mr Hubbert’s views are shaped by a lifetime in retail. Last year he swapped the world of fast fashion for premium products when he left a managerial role at Sir Philip Green’s Top Shop in Sheffield for Hoopers, the family-run designer department store on James Street.

Top Shop is one of many mighty brands to have fallen in Harrogate, along with the likes of Debenhams, Swarovski and Laura Ashley. Mr Hubbert, 50, who lives in Hampsthwaite, is acutely aware of how critical the months ahead are for not only for Hoopers but the whole of Harrogate after lockdowns, Brexit and the rise of internet shopping.

He has joined Harrogate Business Improvement District, which aims to increase footfall in the town centre, as part of his broader mission to save the high street.

He says there have been some good initiatives, such as the BID’s street clean-up, but has concerns about the recent scattergun of proposals from Harrogate Borough Council and North Yorkshire County Council, which range from installing fake grass to promoting cycling and walking schemes that restrict vehicles to talk of pedestrianising streets and making traffic one-way. He says:

“The big focus at the moment has to be on the next couple of months. We need to accept the fact we have been through one of the biggest negative things in our lives. We need to think about back to basics.

“There’s been some great work done but there needs to be more synergy between the various groups.

“If we are going to do something, let’s focus on things that will make a big difference. Something that makes a statement.”

Parking on James Street

James Street, with its more upmarket retailers, is particularly sensitive to tinkering. Last year’s decision to install planters for social distancing purposes and prevent parking didn’t go down well with many traders. Mr Hubbert says:

“It was a big deal because it’s evident people used that parking to nip in and out. We put our point across but here we are without it.”

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He hopes policymakers listen to businesses before any new initiatives are introduced.

“I hope they take views on board and don’t just stream-roll things thorough because they have seven or eight million pounds and feel they have to spend it.

“That sum could be better spent on a park and ride scheme. Or we could make James Street electric car-only and have electric charge points. If we do something, let’s do something big.

“If you go down the pedestrianisation route, go for something premium so that people’s dwell time on James Street will increase but we have to have that guarantee it will be something spectacular.

“Don’t do fake grass. Don’t make it like Cambridge Street. That doesn’t look inspiring and attract footfall. There are no features. It’s just nothing.”

Last department store standing

Hoopers has felt its share of pain in the last year. Staff numbers have halved to about 35 and it has reduced trading to 30 hours a week for the time being.

It is the last department store standing in the district after Debenhams in Harrogate and Wrens in Ripon closed last year. You might think Mr Hubbert would be pleased to see rivals fold but he says:

“An empty shop in town isn’t good for anybody. We will pick up some of their sales but I’d rather see Debenhams in a strong position because it’s one of the oldest names on the high street.”

Some feel the department store concept has had its day but Mr Hubbert says the lockdown has rekindled Britain’s love affair with shops, particularly those selling premium brands.

“People have seen the high street deteriorate in the last 18 months and it’s shocked them. As much as they love the internet for convenience shopping they don’t want to see void space.

“Many regulars have come back and said ‘we are so pleased to see you back’. They like the fact that they can get that different fragrance here that is unique.

“They are definitely treating themselves to things such as luxury handbags and outfits for holidays.”

‘Biggest fight of our lives’

Harrogate has one of four Hoopers stores. Debra Angus, the managing director, visited recently. Mr Hubbert says:

“There was no doom or gloom conversation. It was all very positive. It’s given me a lot of confidence.”

But there’s no hiding the fact that these are unprecedented times. He says:

“Every retailer is having the biggest fight of their lives. For me, it’s about making the store become profitable and have longevity so we still have this great store in Harrogate.

“We are fighting to be here long-term. I’ve been in retail all my life and it’s become evident we can’t live without the high street. I’m more passionate than ever about shops staying open.

“That’s why I’m involved with the BID. I want to make a difference to not just Hoopers but also making the shopping experience better for people. I’m on a crusade to save the high street.”

‘Evil’ Harrogate carer jailed for defrauding disabled women out of £18,000

A carer from Harrogate has been jailed for three years after defrauding a disabled woman in her care of £18,000 and then going on a shopping spree.

Corina Rose Lyons, 54, tricked the victim, who uses a wheelchair, into handing over her credit card and money from an inheritance, claiming she needed to borrow the money for essential costs.

As part of a “convoluted tissue of lies” Lyons from Pannal Green, convinced the woman to hand over her credit card after telling her she had been offered a job as a code-writer for Sony and needed money for software, York Crown Court heard.

She then went on a £10,000 spending spree, said prosecutor Helen Towers.

Lyons was arrested following the six-year con and denied the allegations – even trying to pin the blame on the victim.

On the day of her trial though, she admitted three counts of fraud.

At the sentence hearing on Thursday, Ms Towers said the victim suffered from a condition which caused her chronic pain.

Lyons, who was working for a Harrogate care group, became one of her carers in 2004. In 2010, Lyons became her sole carer and was trusted by the victim.

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The court heard how Lyons’s deceit had a “devastating” effect on the woman’s life.

She’d been forced to sell her house but was left unable to buy a property in London near her relatives. She ended up having to buy a cheaper property in Scotland where she knew nobody.

Lyons took a total of £18,649 from the victim after spending £9,649 on the victim’s credit card and persuading her to give her two loans.

Lyons – who had previous convictions for 18 offences including fraud, theft from the person and obtaining property by deception.

In 2009 she had been sent to prison for defrauding another woman out of nearly £100,000, had been released from prison in 2010 and immediately set about targeting a new victim.

Mohammed Ayaz Qazi, for Lyons, said she “simply didn’t learn her lesson” from her previous fraud conviction.

Judge Sean Morris described Lyons as an “evil fraudster”. He said:

“You went to prison in 2009 for a near-identical offence, fleecing somebody who trusted you.

“You got your nails into the next victim, who was a woman who suffers from an awful affliction that makes her bed-bound mostly, and certainly wheelchair-bound.

“You knew she had come into an inheritance and you fabricated the most convoluted tissue of lies again and again and again, and that lady was trying to help you, and you were just spending (the money).

“The (victim)…doesn’t trust anybody anymore, especially carers. She should have been enjoying the twilight of her years with loved ones – you ripped that away. You are an evil fraudster.”

Sneak peek: First food hall opens in Harrogate next week

Harrogate’s first food hall will open its doors next week to serve up a range of cuisines under one roof.

Solita FoodHall Harrogate, on Parliament Street, has had its rooftop terrace open over the last month with a reduced menu.

Now it is ready to invite people indoors as restrictions ease. The food hall is set in a huge building over two floors. There is room for 80 covers inside with social distancing.

Watch the chefs cook your food.

But it will open fully next Monday with Rupert’s Coffee House, Rotisserie & Grill, Solita Wagyu Burger, Slice Me Nicely Pizza, Cure & Pour Wines and Solita Fish Bar.

As well as the six original stalls, all under the Shoot The Bull brand, Solita has welcomed other businesses on board and is in talks with even more.

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Huddersfield-based Kwas, which is promised to be another first for Harrogate as a natural wine shop, will open next week. It will stock more than 100 vegan, organic and eco-friendly wines.

An eco-farmer from Sheffield is also opening up a stall on the ground floor. Leaf and Shoot will sell house plants, flowers and pottery.

The double bacon cheese burger.

Shoot The Bull already has restaurants in Manchester, Hull, York, Beverley and Sheffield. The Harrogate branch has created around 30 jobs.

Chris Harrison, CEO of Shoot The Bull, told the Stray Ferret:

“I am so passionate about food and the whole team has so many different ideas. So I think when we saw this venue we saw it as a place to unleash all of those ideas under one roof.

“Our food hall is just a food experience, more of an emporium. We want people to come here as a family or with friends and everyone be able to get the food they want.

“It’s completely different and this is something Harrogate has not got. It’s a lovely, busy town. There are a lot of big players here so we think we will fit in here.”

There is plenty of room, even with social distancing.

Secret Shopper: Bling, blouses and boxes from Harrogate’s fabulous independent stores

A bit about me: I’m not a Stray Ferret staffer, I’m a consumer journalist who loves shopping and loves Harrogate. This month, I’m here to show you what’s caught my eye in Harrogate’s independent outlets. The high street is great. But alongside the big brands, what really makes a place special for shopping are the one-offs: local small businesses where you can really feel the love and passion for what they sell.  So give them a bit of love back and buy from them!.

The items I have picked are my personal choices – I have not been paid to feature them.  

 

EARRINGS, Boho Chic, West Park.  £35

Boho Chic has been sourcing clothes and accessories from across the globe since 2009.  It’s a small, friendly boutique and feels like a happy business. With a colourful range of spring, summer – and yes, even beach wear – it made me feel like summer might really happen.  And a big plus for me – they have lots of reasonably priced jewellery with pearly and other sparkly features.  These earrings caught my eye but I could have happily picked out plenty more.

PICNIC SET, Foxy Antiques and Interiors, Commercial Street £65.

All power to Commercial Street which is fast carving out an identity for itself as the destination for independent foody shopping (more on that another month).  It also is home to interiors specialist Foxy, which only opened in December (in the middle of the pandemic – full marks for bottle!).  This is a properly whacky place for when you need some taxidermy, a fiberglass ET, original art or some retro commercial signage.  I bought a set of 60s frosted glass tumblers (only £24) – so sadly for you, those are no longer available. But I was also tempted by the romance of a balmy picnic with this hamper. It has everything you’d need from lovely crockery to cutlery and a salt and pepper set:  just fill up with choice items from the food stores up the road.

BLOUSE, Porters, St James St  £75

This recent arrival to St James Street – next to Coopers – is classy with affordable as well as some higher end labels.  In womenswear, upstairs, they carry Scotch and Soda (a favourite line of mine) as well as some less established ranges.  Broderie Anglaise is big this year (which is good because its lovely) and this blouse is smart and summery.  There’s also a shirt dress version for £95 that I think would look stunning.  Menswear has been selected with a clever eye, with plenty of unstructured casual jackets, including some from Universal Works – pricey but definitely dapper.  Fashion conscious friends of mine have had to search this label out online, but you lucky Harrogate shoppers can try them on in your local high street independent.

LITERARY TRAVEL MUGS. John Atkinson Books, Royal Parade £20

Editor’s choice: “Surely no one wants to add to landfill by buying takeaway coffee cups?” asks the editor as I sheepishly admit to forgetting my travel cup (again).  These literary  mugs could be the answer, and they also say to the world “I’m a learned, well read fun type”, which I like doing. They would make great presents – as might the first editions sold by this dealer in fine and rare books.  If you had fifteen grand or so to spare for, say, a first issue Conan Doyle.  Maybe just stick to the Sherlock mugs then?  Book prices do start at under £99 but anyway, I loved just looking at these historic editions, many with beautiful period covers. Artworks, in fact. Being in their presence was enough.

STORAGE BASKETS, Westmorland, Montpelier Parade £20 and £16.50

Sheepskin specialists are not just for winter..  There’s many a beautiful warm slipper to be found here, but they also sell boots, accessories, gorgeous leather aprons for kids doing crafts, and homewares.  I particularly liked these storage boxes which are native to Yorkshire: from a range produced by a mother and daughter team whose family members worked in the rag trade in Ossett, West Yorkshire, recycling woolen cloth. Now the pair work with local mills to source environmentally sustainable fabrics.

SCARF / SUMMER WRAP, Dizzy Duck, Albert Street £14

More cheerful summer clothes to choose from here, but experience tells us it is always wise to have a cardie or at least a warm wrap on hand. Of course you could always use it as a scarf too – its extremely soft and I loved the velvet contrast ribbon trim.  And there’s another version with a rainbow edging.  Very reasonably priced so it might be tempting to buy both…

 

 

More next month!  Keep shopping and keep Harrogate great.

 

 

 

Watch: Volunteers plant wild flowers on Harrogate’s Stray

Harrogate Borough Council is working with volunteers to plant more than 5,500 wild flower plugs on the Stray.

The flowers will be planted between the Empress and Prince of Wales roundabouts on the Stray.

Volunteers from the Bilton Conservation Group and the Rotary Club of Harrogate are helping to plant the bulbs over this weekend and next.

The council hopes that by September the flowers will be in full bloom.

Both Harrogate Subway locations close down

Subway’s two Harrogate locations have failed to reopen after the end of lockdown, and the company has confirmed that they are closing down permanently.

The interior of the town centre location, on Beulah Street, has been gutted. Meanwhile the Leeds Road shop has been shut for some time.

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The closure means that Subway now has only one location in Knaresborough, down from four in 2018.

However, the a spokesperson for the chain indicated there may be plans for opening new locations:

“We will be looking to open a new store in Harrogate in the near future, and look forward to providing a further update for the local community when able.”

Controversial Oatlands Drive active travel scheme scrapped

Proposals to make the Oatlands Drive area of Harrogate more friendly to cyclists, which included making some of the Saints area one-way, will now not go ahead following fierce opposition from local residents.

In December, North Yorkshire County Council accepted £1,011,750 as part of a five-year, £2 billion programme by the Department for Transport to improve active travel infrastructure.

The council put forward four schemes in the county: three in Harrogate and one in Whitby.

However, opposition against the Oatlands Drive plans has proved too difficult to overcome for the county council which has now withdrawn it from its bid.

Unpopular with local residents

NYCC had originally planned to make the whole of Oatlands Drive in Harrogate one-way but it was dropped in March after 57% of respondents to an initial county council consultation opposing the proposal.

Opponents cited the impact on school buses and the creation of a ‘rat run’ on surrounding residential streets at peak times.

The scheme moved forward and included making nearby St Winifred’s Road and St Hilda’s Road one way but this was similarly unpopular with residents.

It also proposed to make Oatlands Drive 20mph and to add double yellow lines down both sides of its advisory cycle lane to stop motorists parking there.

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NYCC will instead commission an ‘Oatlands Constituency Feasibility Study’. It says this will “reeassess opportunities” for infrastructure improvements across a wider area than the government scheme allows.

The two other schemes in Harrogate have been recommended for approval, however.

Don Mackenzie, NYCC’s executive member for access, said:

“The work done so far on this scheme will not be wasted since it has highlighted opportunities to deliver improvements more widely in that area. That is why it is proposed to carry out a feasibility study focused on the Oatlands area later this year.

“The three schemes recommended to be taken forward were generally well received by residents. The Oatlands Drive scheme, however, and in particular the one-way filters for motorised vehicles, proved less popular and many local residents expressed their opposition. Since a condition of the Active Travel Fund is that each scheme should have public support, it is recommended that the Oatlands Drive proposal be withdrawn.”

The council said some of the savings made by dropping the Oatlands Drive scheme would be spent expanding its Whitby scheme.

The schemes that have been recommended to go ahead are below:

Victoria Avenue, Harrogate

A59, Harrogate Road, Knaresborough

Recommendations will be considered at a meeting of NYCC’s Business and Environmental Services Executive Members on Friday, May 21.

Work starts on £500,000 business hub at former Harrogate council offices

Harrogate Borough Council is set to create a £500,000 digital business hub in its former offices at the convention centre.

The council has appointed York-based Lindum for the refurbishment of Springfield House. Work starts next Monday and is due to be complete by the start of October.

When the Harrogate Digital Incubator is finished, the building will provide flexible working spaces aimed at small businesses or individuals in the tech, digital and media industries.

It will also provide event and meeting spaces with a business support hub for advice on business plans, finances and more.

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The building has been set for renovation for a couple of years and work was due to start last year. However, when the convention centre became the Nightingale hospital the council put the project on hold.

Harrogate Borough Council vacated Springfield House in 2017 when it moved over to the civic centre at Knapping Mount. Since then the council has let it out to businesses.

Jonathan Sizer, managing director at Lindum, said:

“We are delighted to be working with Harrogate Borough Council to deliver this long-awaited project, which will bring empty office space on the third and fourth floors of Springfield House back into use.

“It will not only provide a modern work space, in the heart of the town centre, but a space where businesses can work individually or together to share knowledge.

“High quality, flexible and affordable office space is in desperately short supply and high demand. We are delighted to be working with Harrogate Borough Council to deliver this project.”

The Leeds City Region Local Enterprise Partnership is funding the project. Harrogate Borough Council believes it will bring in around £49,000 a year in rent.

Skipton Road: emergency roadworks cause more misery

Long queues are forming on Skipton Road as two sets of roadworks are combining to cause misery for drivers.

Works to replace a gas main underneath Roberts Crescent were already in place but Northern Gas Networks has also started repairs to fix a gas leak on Skipton Road.

It has set up three-way temporary lights on the junction opposite Bilton Lane, which is in between the junctions at both ends of Roberts Crescent.

Temporary traffic lights on Skipton Road, Harrogate.

Temporary traffic lights on Skipton Road, Harrogate

Northern Gas Networks said works on Roberts Crescent are expected to last until May 25, while those on Skipton Road should be complete in “no more than three weeks”.

Footpath closed on Roberts Crescent, off Skipton Road.

The footpath is closed on Roberts Crescent, off Skipton Road

On Twitter, the company apologised for the disruption and urged motorists to use other routes.

The emergency repair will last for no more than three weeks. We apologise for the disruption the work will cause and ask drivers to avoid the area if they can or leave extra time for journeys. Call our Customer Care Team for more info: 0800 040 7766 (opt 3).

— NorthernGasNetworks (@NGNgas) May 12, 2021

Skipton Road is one of the busiest roads in the town.

Northern Gas Networks began work replacing metal pipes with plastic ones in July last year, which was paused in October and recommenced in January. The roadworks were finally finished in April.

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Sneak peek: Harrogate’s Lucia ready to reopen after £750,000 refurb

An Italian restaurant and cocktail bar is reopening in Harrogate after spending £750,000 on a major refurbishment during the third national lockdown.

Lucia Harrogate, based at 3 Ripon Road, will throw open its doors to guests again on Tuesday May 18 with a bright and refreshed look. So we went for a sneak peek.

The big investment, which comes after a difficult year for the hospitality industry, has also created 21 jobs.

Lucia Harrogate’s middle floor, on street level, is bright and airy

It already seems to be paying off. Tables in the restaurant and bar are fully reserved for the next three weeks and if people keep booking, there could be scope to create even more roles.

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Lucia, which has two more restaurants in Beverley and York, has been in Harrogate since 2014.

Its restaurant in the town is set over three floors. It now has a classic Italian, 1920s look, with a modern floral twist.

There is an almost prohibition-era feel to the basement, which is kitted out in dark and rich reds and ocean-inspired decorations.

The middle floor remains as the main restaurant space and bar. It also leads into the conservatory, which has an eye-catching floral display on the ceiling.

While the top floor is where you can find even more seating to grab food and drinks. The main toilets are also on the top floor.

Soothing blues enhance the top floor’s more relaxed atmosphere

Mike Turner, general manager at Lucia Wine Bar and Grill Harrogate, told the Stray Ferret:

“We are looking forward to opening our doors and showcasing this beautiful restaurant. It’s had a good overhaul and we have created extra jobs.

“People cannot wait to head out, so that is great. We are fully booked for the next three weeks and people are already getting in touch about the fourth week.”

Rich red decor gives the basement an almost-prohibition-era feel

Chelsea Talbot, the restaurant’s guest experience manager, also said:

“The money for the refurbishment is Lucia money, it comes from the success and confidence in what we can offer.

“I spoke to a taxi driver about it who thought it was daft to spend so much money, but it’s not. It’s amazing.

“We know that this is what Harrogate wants. We are confident in hospitality. People can dine and drink with us and spend a full evening here.”

A statement floral ceiling dominates the conservatory

 

The basement’s bar is ready for staff to serve drinks