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14
Jun
Fascinating photos provide glimpse of Harrogate hotel's forgotten spa past
Think of Harrogate’s spa-town past and you think of the Royal Baths, the Turkish Baths, and maybe the stinky sulphur well at the Royal Pump Room.
But hidden away from visitors and rarely touched by staff, there are rooms in the Cairn Hotel that preserve fascinating remnants of the town’s spa heritage.
Parts of the facilities are used for storage.
These images were captured – some time ago, according to the Cairn Hotel's general manager Gaynor Wilson – by an ‘urban explorer’ who photographs unused rooms and the interiors of abandoned properties. Their photos can be viewed on the Facebook page Lost Places & Forgotten Places, and the ones here are reproduced with their permission.
Left: wide-bore pipes for the hydro facilities; right: an old water-testing kit.
The Cairn Hotel started life in the mid-19th century as a grand private residence at the top of the hill – where a cairn would usually be found (it’s not known whether there actually was one) – but it was turned into a hotel in 1890.
How the Cairn Hotel used to look in the early 20th century.
By the turn of the century, it was a popular hydrotherapy retreat known as The Cairn Hydro, and had its own bathhouse and bathing chambers. This was when Harrogate’s fame as a fashionable spa resort was at its peak, and the nearby Old Swan Hotel, which was then called The Hydro, also boasted its own Turkish baths.
The rusting pipework and wheeltaps of the spa facilities.
In 1898, a stay at the Cairn Hydro cost £3 17s 0d or £5 5s 0d per person per week, depending on the type of room, and the price included the room with attendant, a morning bath, breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner. Fires in bedrooms cost either 2 shillings per day, 1/6d for the afternoon or only one shilling for the evening alone.
Harrogate’s spa industry took a huge blow from the Second World War and was effectively defunct by the 1960s.
The electric power for the hydro facilities.
As a result, the Cairn Hydro’s hydropathic facilities have lain unused for many decades, but run down though they are, they still provide a glimpse of the industry that fuelled Harrogate’s growth and wealth.
There are currently no plans to revive the facilities, but their renovation remains an ambition for the hotel’s family-run owner, Newcastle-based Strathmore Hotels. Its website states:
The bath and spring waters which were then part of what became known as the ‘The Cairn Hydro Hotel’ is still in place today, though sadly not currently in use.
It has always been a hope by Strathmore Hotels to restore these rooms to their former glory. Many guests who come to stay with us are fascinated by the original hand-painted tiles, still intact today in the old baths area, and we are always proud to show them off – so please do ask if you come to stay.
The front of the hotel has not changed much over the last 100 years.
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