Subscribe to trusted local news
If you are accessing this story via Facebook but you are a subscriber then you will be unable to access the story. Facebook wants you to stay and read in the app and your login details are not shared with Facebook. If you experience problems with accessing the news but have subscribed, please contact subscriptions@thestrayferret.co.uk. In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever. By subscribing, you can help us get the story right.
- Subscription costs less than £1 a week with an annual plan.
Already a subscriber? Log in here.
22
Mar
Harrogate’s Royal Baths: a costly tale of empty units at taxpayers' expense
It will soon be a year since the Wicked Wolf’s brief tenure in Harrogate ended.
The bar occupied one of five commercial units in the historic Royal Baths, which North Yorkshire County Council bought for £9.5 million in 2018 to generate investment income.
Its closure last spring means three of those units in the Royal Baths are empty — and have been for some time.
The Viper Rooms was repossessed in December 2022, and the old tourist information centre never reopened after covid.
The Royal Baths was branded an “under-performing trophy asset” as long ago as 2021 and things have got worse since. Its value has plummeted to £6.3 million, and now a Stray Ferret investigation can reveal its investment returns are even worse than expected.
The Wicked Wolf
Paltry returns
A commercial investment portfolio in the UK would expect to generate annual returns of at least 5%.
The council’s portfolio includes a bank in Stafford, a Co-op in Somercotes, Derbyshire and a Travelodge in Scarborough, as well as the Royal Baths.
Quarterly treasury management reports published by the council forecast the returns for each one.
The latest report, for the third quarter of 2025/26, forecast returns of between 4.5% and 7.8% for all the properties, except the Royal Baths, which was forecast to generate a paltry 1.59% — a figure which has changed little in recent years.
The quarterly reports, however, do not reveal historic performance. The Stray Ferret therefore submitted a freedom of information request to the council asking for the forecasted returns and actual returns each year since 2020.
Here are the findings:
Financial Year Budget (Forecast) Return
2020/21 £333,000 / £121,200
2021/22 £255,000 / £77,200
2022/23 £294,400 / £134,100
2023/24 £425,600 / £144,700
2024/25 £175,400 / £155,300
2025/26 £200,300 / £137,700 (forecasted return on 30/09/2025)
TOTAL FORECAST £1,683,700
TOTAL RETURNS: £770,200
The Royal Baths, therefore, has generated less than half of even the low forecasted returns.
It has under-performed in every year, and in some years has not even generated half or even a third of what was expected.
For a council in desperate need to make savings, it raises awkward questions.
The Winter Gardens Wetherspoon pub on Parliament Street
In 2021 the council blamed covid for impacting Royal Baths tenants, which also include the Royal Baths Chinese Restaurant and the Winter Gardens Wetherspoon’s pub.
It added: "We remain confident that Harrogate and the Royal Baths itself will recover from the pandemic and continue to contribute to the Harrogate and North Yorkshire local economy."
A council report in 2024 said leasing the former Tourist Information Centre could raise £30,000 to £40,000 a year, which has never materialised.
Neither have multiple claims of the Viper Rooms attracting lots of interest. In January last year, the council even said it had accepted an offer and “we are now in a position for the new tenant to move in”.
A previous Stray Ferret investigation in 2023 revealed the long-term vacancy of two of the units had cost the taxpayer almost £1 million in lost rent and service charges.
Councillor Peter Lacey, who represents Coppice Valley and Duchy and leads the Liberal Democrat group on Tory-controlled North Yorkshire Council, urged the council to “redouble” it attempts to find tenants.
Cllr Lacey said:
The Royal Baths in Harrogate are a key part of the local economy attracting visitors to the town and therefore contributing to local economic development. We recognise that since covid and in the context of wider challenges in the hospitality sector it has been difficult to generate the additional rental income that such an iconic venue should command. We therefore urge North Yorkshire Council to redouble their efforts to bring the buildings back into full use.
The Royal Baths were built in Victoria times as part of the vision to make Harrogate a spa town.
More than 125 years on, a new vision for the grade two listed building is required if it is ever to shake off its "under-performing trophy asset" reputation and generate the kind of taxpayer value that would justify its purchase price.
0