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Royal Baths, Harrogate
'The queerest place, with the strangest people in it, leading the oddest lives of dancing, newspaper reading, and tables d' hôte.' That was how Charles Dickens described Harrogate when he visited in 1858.
It is perhaps easy to see why he viewed the town as peculiar. Dancing and newspaper reading were part of the ritual, but it was the sulphur water that drew a wealthy clientele to Harrogate. Despite its offensive smell, visitors would drink four or five glasses every day.
Harrogate's fortunes had long depended on its naturally occurring mineral waters. It was in 1571 that the first spring was discovered in High Harrogate by William Slingsby. Riding through the Forest of Knaresborough, his horse stumbled by a pool, and he stopped to refresh himself with a drink. The taste reminded him of the mineral waters he had taken at Spa in Belgium.
Realising that his discovery could be important, he had the spring walled and paved. It became known as 'the Tewit Well', on account of the lapwings (which the locals called 'tewits') which fed on the mineral deposits around it.
This was the first of many mineral springs to be discovered in High Harrogate (the next being the Sweet Spa), and soon visitors flooded in to drink the waters. The inns and lodging houses where they stayed had wooden tubs in which guests could bathe in heated spring water. The first public bathing house was built around 1663, next to the Sweet Spa, under the instruction of Dr George Neale, later author of a book about Harrogate's spa waters (Spadacrene Eboracensis).
As well as taking the cure, they would spend time playing cards, racing (there was a racecourse on the Stray), watching sports, and hunting. In the evenings, they would dine and dance at the tables d' hôte, inns, and hotels. Harrogate became a fixture on the social calendar, a place where many a young lady met her future husband.
The wells in High Harrogate were 'chalybeate', or iron, springs, but Low Harrogate had its own spring, known as the Old Sulphur Well. The water smelt of hard boiled eggs, but stronger and more salty, and it has always had its detractors. In the early nineteenth century, it was described as 'the most foetid and foul-smelling water...a nauseous puddle.'
In Tobias Smollett's novel 'Humphry Clinker', he wrote this of the sulphur well: 'As for the water, which is said to have effected so many surprising cures, I have drank it once, and the first draft has cured me of all desire to repeat the medecine...The only effects it produced were sickness, griping and insurmountable disgust. I can hardly mention it without puking...'
Nevertheless, its medicinal properties meant that Low Harrogate became the focus of development of the spa in the early 1800s. A public assembly room was built by subscription in 1804 (now the Mercer Art Gallery); a Roman-style temple was erected over the Old Sulphur Well in 1808, for shelter from the weather; rival local entrepreneurs built the Victoria and Montpellier Baths, and, in the style of a Greek temple, the Cheltenham Spa Rooms, for concerts and balls. The new facilites made Harrogate a formidable competitor to the continental spas.
The town's prosperity was founded entirely on the waters, and when they were threatened in December 1835, the citizens were alarmed. Joseph Thackwray, the proprietor of the Crown Hotel, made an attempt to divert the waters of the Old Sulphur Well onto his own land.
The other hoteliers, led by Jonathan Shutt of the Swan Inn, tried to persuade Thackwray to stop, and when he refused, they decided to prosecute him. He was tried in York, and acquitted on a technicality, but the court ordered him to stop digging. The incident led to the appointment of the Improvement Commissioners to look after the interests of the town.
The first act of the Improvement Commissioners was to build the Royal Pump Room, an otagonal structure to house the Old Sulphur Well. An entrance fee for visitors helped to pay for it, but the outside tap preserved a free supply for the town's poorer residents. This free outside tap remains to this day, and is protected by Act of Parliament. (The Stray Act 1985 provides - section 11 (1) (c) - 'The Council shall maintain and protect...the supply of water without charge from the public drinking fountain situate outside the Royal Pump Room.'
In Dickens' time, visitors took two glasses of sulphur water from the Pump Room before breakfast, with a further dose before lunch. They would pass the rest of the morning reading the newspaper or letter-writing, strolling in Crescent Gardens, or shopping in Harrogate's boutiques.
Afternoon activities included cycling, golfing, or driving out to local attractions such as Fountains Abbey or Knaresborough. In the evenings, the fashionable guests dressed up and attended the theatre, concerts, or a ball.
Invalids would take their treatment in one of the public bathing houses; and from 1897, the Royal Baths provided a truly splendid setting for a wide range of hydrotherapy treatments. None was more bizarre than the baths where arthritic patients were immersed in gallons of steam-heated peat!
Harrogate could justifiably claim to be one of Europe's great spas, and it attracted celebrities from all over the world. Famous poets who visited Harrogate's spa include Lord Byron in 1806 and Wordsworth in 1827; in the 1911 season, royalty from Russia, Prussia, Portugal, and Greece visited; and 1926 saw Agatha Christie resurface at the Swan Hotel after her mystery disappearance had sparked a major police and media search.
After World War II, Harrogate declined as a spa town, instead developing conference facilities. Of the hydrotherapy treatments at the Royal Baths, only the Turkish Baths remain.
For the distinctive taste of Harrogate's past, however, visitors can still sample the waters of the Old Sulphur Well at the Royal Pump Room museum.
All photos © Hedgehog Cycling
Road cycling routes around Harrogate.
There are some excellent quiet routes, especially to the north of Harrogate, taking in Brimham Rocks, the moors near Pateley Bridge, and Studley deer park.
Read about Harrogate road cycling routes.
A look at cycle routes in the town of Harrogate, with some comments about how they could be improved, where appropriate. This overview of Harrogate's cycle infrastructure includes Slingsby Walk, East Parade, Otley Road, Beckwith Head Road, a route via Luchon Way, south Harrogate cycle routes, Beech Grove, Harlow Moor Road, and Oatlands Drive.
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