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07
Nov
Update in ongoing tenancy saga at Harrogate’s former Viper Rooms
A potential tenancy agreement at Harrogate’s former Viper Rooms premises has fallen through, the Stray Ferret can reveal.
Harrogate has been nightclub-less since the Parliament Street site closed suddenly in 2022.
North Yorkshire Council, which owns the grade-two Royal Baths building, repossessed the site from owner Paul Kinsey in December of that year.
The authority has teased the prospect of new life at the site multiple times – none of which have materialised – and the council’s corporate director of resources, Gary Fielding, even told the Stray Ferret in January an offer had been accepted for a new tenant to take over the site.
Little has changed since then and the Stray Ferret has repeatedly asked for updates. The council reiterated it had agreed the tenant’s offer but said there had been a delay in completing legal agreements.
But a freedom of information (FOI) request submitted by the Stray Ferret revealed the offer has now fallen through.
We asked the council to disclose the latest position relating to the tenancy at the former Viper Rooms site, including to confirm if the prospective tenant had been confirmed and when it expected to open its doors.
Responding to the FOI request, a senior property officer at North Yorkshire Council said:
The offer that had been accepted has since fallen away. The property is now back on the market and available to let.
According to a listing by property agent Savills, the asking rental price is £150,000 – £32,000 more than the annual rent at the time the nightclub shut down.
The council told the Stray Ferret the annual rent at the time of the closure was £118,100. Service charge payable was £74,964.52.
This means the council would have generated £579,192 – or £193,064 per year – if the Viper Rooms had remained open on the same terms over the last three years.
The Wicked Wolf on May 13, 2025.
The news is the latest blow to the council's building dubbed its “under-performing trophy asset”.
The council bought the Royal Baths building for £9.5 million in 2018 to bolster its commercial investment portfolio. Instead, it has been dogged by low returns and empty units.
A report valued it at £7 million and forecasted an investment return of just 1.64% in 2023 — well below what would be expected from commercial property.
To make matters worse, the unit formerly occupied by The Wicked Wolf – which was one of a flurry of new venues that opened in Harrogate last year – has remained empty since operations ground to a halt in April.
In addition, Harrogate’s Tourist Information Centre on Crescent Road shut its doors in February 2024 before it relocated to the nearby Royal Pump Room Museum.
The Crescent Road unit has remained empty, but an advert on LoopNet lists it as “under offer”.
The Stray Ferret revealed in January the failure to find tenants in most of the Royal Baths units has cost taxpayers £1.5 million in income.
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