Plans have been submitted to convert the former Moss Bros menswear shop on Parliament Street in Harrogate into a new bar.

Jonathan Neil from Palagander Ltd has submitted an application to Harrogate Borough Council to convert 23 Parliament Street, which also meets the top of The Ginnel, into a nightspot.

The company already runs two venues in Leeds. A cocktail bar called Roland’s on Call Lane and live music venue The Domino Club.

The new bar would be the latest addition to Parliament Street’s nightlife scene which is home to many venues including the Harrogate Arms, Revolución de Cuba, Mojos and the Viper Rooms.

The Ginnel hosts bars Montey’s and Major Tom’s Social.

Some venues on Parliament Street have struggled to survive in recent years including Jamie’s Italian, Wagyu Bar & Grill and The Restaurant Bar and Grill, which all closed.

The Stray Ferret tried to contact Mr Neil to find out more about his plans but we had not received a response by the time of publication.

Read more:

• New Starbeck bar and cafe granted planning permission
• Knaresborough train station bar is a ‘labour of love’

Harrogate historian Malcolm Neesam has called on North Yorkshire County Council to explore making West Park and Parliament Street open to traffic from both directions.

The two adjoining roads have been one-way for 50 years since the layout changed in 1970.

Mr Neesam, who has written several books on the town, believes returning the roads to how they used to be could be a solution to the town’s congestion problems.

Station Gateway

Traffic flow in Harrogate has been under the spotlight in recent months due to the £7.9m Station Gateway proposals, which could reduce Station Parade to one lane and pedestrianise part of James Street under plans yet to be decided

Some fear that it would have implications for the rest of Harrogate town centre and would exacerbate tailbacks on Station Parade, Cheltenham Parade, King’s Road and back to Parliament Street and West Park.

Mr Neesam believes that changing the road layout would “free up” traffic to flow more easily through town.

He also said it could benefit delegates visiting Harrogate Convention Centre, who would have better access to the town centre.

He said North Yorkshire County Council had long opposed reintroducing two-way traffic but called on the highways authority to reconsider.

He said:

“I’m very much in favour of making the roads two-way. It already works on Leeds Road and Ripon Road.

“They were built as a two-way system in the 18th century.

“It’s quite logical and would free up Station Parade and Cheltenham Parade.”

Read more:

• Is there any consensus on Harrogate’s £7.9m Station Gateway project?
• Harrogate cycle groups back one-lane Station Parade plan

In response, Don Mackenzie, the county council’s executive member for access and the Conservative councillor for Harrogate Saltergate, said he “wouldn’t rule it out forever” but was lukewarm on the idea.

He said:

“Many people will recall that in the 50s and 60s there was two-way traffic on West Park and Parliament Street. But this was when vehicle numbers were far less than today.

“Look at West Park and Parliament Street today — it’s difficult to imagine it being two-way with the amount of traffic the two lanes get.”

Cllr Mackenzie also rejected suggestions the Station Gateway proposals would significantly increase congestion in the town. He said:

“It’s likely to happen to a small extent, but the numbers suggested are very small.”

A radical history

Plans to make West Park and Parliament Street one-way were first drawn up in the 1960s by the former West Riding and Harrogate councils.

It was intended to be the first of a five-phase plan to radically alter the road network and would have involved the creation of dual carriageways and flyovers in Harrogate town centre.

However, the rest of the plan was scrapped following massive public opposition.

Stray Views is a weekly column giving you the chance to have your say on issues affecting the Harrogate district. It is an opinion column and does not reflect the views of the Stray Ferret. See below for details on how to contribute.

Don’t let the Stray become an uncontrolled beer garden

I am aware Harrogate Borough Council has said (subject to feedback from the Duchy of Lancaster) consideration is being given as to whether hospitality businesses can use limited parts of the Stray.

Whatever the proposal is, I object most strongly. When this was allowed last summer it was a most unpleasant experience having to battle your way through groups of people obviously influenced by alcohol.

The area of the Stray in question on Montpellier Parade looked a disgrace and gave the wrong impression of Harrogate. We do not want a proliferation of tables and chairs all over Montpelier Stray or indeed any part of West Park Stray.

Will the free and unhindered use and access to those parts of the Stray still be allowed for all and not just restricted to customers frequenting those particular outlets? And what about those that cannot expand onto the Stray?

The council should honour and uphold the purpose of the Stray Act. If it is ignored this time then it will inevitably happen again, which will open up a can of worms. Why should some hospitality outlets be treated differently to others who do not have such opportunities?

The Stray Act is in place for a good reason to safeguard the Stray against encroachment from all quarters. It protects and limits the use of the Stray so that it remains an intrinsic and a unique asset of community value for the benefit of the town and its visitors as a whole.

It is not for commercial exploitation and benefit by a limited few, especially as some uncontrolled beer garden.

What is the point of a law if it is broken when it becomes inconvenient to an individual or certain parties, including local authorities?

Why is the council therefore seeking a consultation on the interpretation of a law which is already in place? Is the council, as custodian of the Stray, incapable of making such a management decision?

Barry Adams, Harrogate

Consider making Parliament Street in Harrogate two-way

As a transport and distribution professional of over 50 years experience, it is obvious that one traffic lane on Station Road is going to massively slow traffic on this major Harrogate throughway. Two lanes are vital and an ageing population is hardly likely to be encouraged to bike to and through the town.

The problems will not be solvable until another way through the centre is opened up and perhaps looking at making Parliament Street two-way should at least  be considered. With Debenhams going it is no longer the main street in Harrogate and two-way traffic would be the cheapest of all solutions.

Brian Hicks, Pateley Bridge

Councillor’s ‘wild’ covid death claims are inaccurate

Regarding the wild claims by this councillor, based on his experience as a funeral director:

1 Does he not know that the excess death figure is a verifiable guide as to how many deaths were from covid, not only for the UK but for every country in the world that records those statistics [most of them]?

2 There may be more — because influenza hospitalisations have dropped dramatically — as well as other illnesses. Hence associated deaths will have dropped.

3 Car accident deaths are very likely to have dropped because of months of lockdown.

Therefore the figure is likely to be actually more than the excess death rate.

Teresa Liddell Shepherd, Harrogate

Got an opinion on the Harrogate district? Email us at letters@thestrayferret.co.uk. Please include your name and approximate location details. Limit your letters to 350 words. We reserve the right to edit letters.

This History is written for the Stray Ferret by Harrogate historian Malcolm Neesam:

It was with great sadness that I learned of the pending closure of Debenham’s Parliament Street store, which I recall visiting as a small boy in the early 1950s when it still retained the name of its original founder, William Buckley.

From the middle of the 19th century, the site at the northern junction of Parliament and Chapel (now Oxford) Streets had been occupied by a photographer’s studio, the property’s address being 22 Parliament Street, which was occupied by a draper named Charles York.

Buckley’s first shop on Parliament Street, c1901. Copyright: Walker-Neesam Archive.

On his retirement in 1900, Mr York sold his business to a young draper from Nantwich, William James Buckley, who was attracted to Harrogate by the business potential offered by the fashionable and expanding borough. A later observer noted that William Buckley had been apprenticed to the drapery business from an early age, where he had learned that honesty and fair dealings were the basis for successful business.

The shop at 22 Parliament Street was well placed to catch the eyes of visitors to the Royal Baths, as the Wintergardens were located on the opposite side of the road, and thanks to some shrewd buying and displaying by Mrs Buckley, the display windows were filled with the latest fashions in jackets, mantles and costumes.

By 1909, the business was doing so well that Mr Buckley was able to extend his premises by adding a number of ancient and dilapidated properties in Oxford Street, including several highly picturesque buildings ranged round a courtyard and reached through an archway. These were demolished, and a new wing added, built of red brick, and featuring some handsome leaded windows of stained glass of an arts and crafts design. The only other brick buildings in central Harrogate were the 1862 Central Railway Station, the Hotel Majestic and the Grand Opera House, both of 1900, and the 1902 Beulah Street head-building of the central arcade, all of which have survived to this day, although only a small fragment of the Railway Station has survived the wreckers.

Buckley’s Parliament Street frontage was given a handsome pavement canopy of glass and iron, which was not only an invaluable means of encouraging pedestrians on a wet day, but which was also an embellishment to the street scene. In 1910 Mr Buckley bought 24 Parliament Street, where for many years Messrs Phillipson Ltd carried on a musical instrument dealers. There will still be piano stools scattered around Harrogate that contain music scores supplied by Messrs Phillipson Ltd.

After the Great War, Mr Buckley decided to rebuild the Parliament Street section of his business, and in1919, transferred the entire undertaking into the Royal Arcade at number 32, which he had leased in 1914-15, for the period of construction. After moving back into his rebuilt premises, Mr Buckley sold the Royal Arcade to Charles Walker and Son Ltd, who, after adding a handsome scalloped glass canopy over the entrance, installed Harrogate’s finest furniture store in the premises.

The new Parliament Street section of the store matched the 1909 wing, being of red brick with stone finishings around the windows. In those days, all the windows admitted light to the store, causing the delightful stained glass panels to reveal their colouring, an effect lost in the 1980s when Debenham’s blacked out all their windows, giving the interior a gloomily funereal atmosphere.

The rebuilt Buckley’s store was fitted throughout with a marvellous system of aerial wires that criss-crossed each floor carrying canisters containing money and receipts. They seemed to have been powered by a trigger mechanism that sent them whizzing round at high speed, and which were a most efficient means of dispensing change. Mr Buckley undertook a further extension in 1927 when he purchased the premises at 28 Parliament Street, then occupied by a popular cafe “The Lounge”, which had been much frequented by the town’s business people.

By the end of the decade, Buckley’s employed 130 staff, a considerable increase on the five employed back in 1900. The successful business caught the eye of Gordon Selfridge, who, in 1934 purchased it on behalf of Selfridge Provincial Stores Ltd, and when Mr Selfridge visited Buckley’s on January 25, 1934, he thanked the staff for their loyalty and advised them that Mr Buckley had been invited to join the Board of Directors, to ensure the preservation of such an important link. Two years later, in 1936, the company acquired the premises of fishmonger  JW Bentley at 36 Oxford Street, which meant that Buckley’s store now filled the entire corner site between Parliament Street and Union Street. Part of the Union Street property included the original St Peter’s School, which was used as a staff restaurant and joiners’ workshop.

Selfridge Provincial Stores was acquired by the John Lewis partnership in 1939, who in 1940 decided to enlarge the store by adding the premises at 30 Parliament Street, formerly occupied by Miss Edith Ingram’s Needlework business. At midnight on Saturday, December 27 1941, a fire broke out in the Parliament Street section of the store formerly occupied by “The Lounge” cafe, and because of the national emergency, it remained in a burnt-out state until the end of the war.

Busby’s on Parliament Street. Copyright: Walker-Neesam Archive.

In September 1953, Buckleys was acquired by Messrs Busby of Bradford in September 1953, who changed the store’s name to Busby’s – this was seven years after the death of WJ Buckley. 1958 saw Busbys pass into the hands of Debenhams Ltd, who planned a major rebuilding of the Parliament Street properties between the 1919 section and the premises of Charles Walker in what is now the Westminster Arcade. Work began in October 1960, and the new store was officially opened by Mayor G Morrell on Wednesday, November 21, 1962. Architect Victor Syborn showed his respect for the arts and crafts style of the pre-war store by providing a dull facade of pre-fabricated blue and cream rectangular panels, and by replacing the ornate glass-roofed Victorian canopy with a gloomy solid-roofed cantilevered canopy that darkened both the pavement and the shop windows.

At one time, all of Harrogate’s top businesses advertised their prestige by erecting beautiful iron and glass canopies over their frontages, which encouraged pedestrians to examine their window displays – examples being Bettys, Fattorini’s, Hoopers, Jespers, Ogdens and Wood. Buckley’s/Busby’s was another example, until it was ruined, so it would be a real embellishment to Parliament Street if whoever buys the building could restore the lovely original canopy, and open up the stained glass windows.

Malcolm Neesam was born in Harrogate and graduated from the University of Leeds as a professional archivist and librarian. He subsequently worked in Hereford, Leeds, London and York where, for twenty-five years, he was North Yorkshire’s County Music and Audiovisual Librarian. Malcolm is a much-published author. In 1996, Harrogate Borough Council awarded Malcolm the Freedom of the Borough for his services as the town’s historian.

For generations, the Debenhams building on Parliament Street has been one of the major retail landmarks in Harrogate.

It has also been one of the biggest stores, so news that is will not reopen has raised questions about the site’s future.

With many High Street stores struggling even before the lockdown, it won’t be easy finding a retailer for such a large unit.

Developers may scent an opportunity to apply for planning permission to convert some or all of the premises into flats, as has happened with the nearby former post office.

Stuart Holland, co-chair of Harrogate Civic Society, said the site had redevelopment potential but the sloping ground level made this challenging and demolition should be considered.

He hoped any new building would have shops on the ground floor to encourage footfall between Parliament Street and Oxford Street, adding:

“There is not a strong feeling, at this early stage of discussion, for retention of the building and a complete re-build may be welcome.

“A rebuild would give an opportunity to widen the footpath along the first section of Oxford Street and thus encourage the linking of retail areas – particularly as we see Oxford Street becoming home to new independent shops.

“There would also be an opportunity to improve the street scene along Union Street and to allow what is described as the rear entrance to Westminster Arcade to stand out more clearly than at present.”

Read more:

• Staff let go as Harrogate Debenhams will not reopen
• Harrogate shoppers say Debenhams will be much missed

Mr Holland said the upper floors were more suitable for residential use, adding:

“The size of the site lends itself to some creative design whilst ensuring that traffic pollution is not an issue. Car parking is available close by.

“There is a unanimous feeling that the new design should incorporate glazed canopies – taking reference from the many distinctive canopies in the town centre.”

Tom Snook

Tom Snook, managing director of Harrogate chartered surveyors Pantera Property, said the site should adapt to the “major shift” in retailing that is happening throughout the country. He added:

“The decline of bricks and mortar retail, which has been aggravated by the pandemic and the ensuing surge in online shopping, has meant that footfall is extremely low and it’s become difficult for retailers and restaurants to get a secure position in the market.

“The Debenhams building has always been something of a retail icon in Harrogate, which does also mean that it has great potential for change of use.

“I could certainly foresee it being redeveloped as residential apartments on the upper floors, perhaps with some form of boutique retail or serviced offices below.

“In the hands of an imaginative developer it would be great to see the building remain as an asset to Harrogate, albeit with a new identity.”

Look out for an article on the history of the Debenhams building in Harrogate by historian Malcolm Neesam this weekend on the Stray Ferret.

A nine-year-old girl suffered a suspected broken leg after a collision on Parliament Street in Harrogate on Saturday afternoon.

Police attended the scene at around 1pm after a Volva V70 collided with several parked cars, one of which struck the girl. She was taken to hospital for treatment.

Diversions were set up around Parliament Street as police closed the main A61 road through Harrogate whilst they arranged recovery for four damaged vehicles, including the Volvo.

Read more:

• Police appeal for witnesses after child injured in Parliament Street collision

• Pedestrian injured in car pile up on Parliament Street in Harrogate

North Yorkshire Police has appealed for witnesses to a collision on Parliament Street where a child was injured by a car.

The incident happened on Saturday lunchtime and diversions were set up around Parliament Street as police closed the main A61 road through Harrogate.

North Yorkshire Police has released no further details of the incident at this time.

Anyone who may have seen the collision is asked to contact Mark Hutchings of the Major Collision Investigation Unit on 101 or email Mark.Hutchings@northyorkshire.pnn.police.uk.

Read More:

• One week passes without a coronavirus death at Harrogate District Hospital
• Harrogate pub owner decides to make pop-up grocery shop permanent

The main A61 through Harrogate was shut this lunchtime after a multiple car pile up in which a pedestrian was injured.

Police have not released details of how seriously the pedestrian has been hurt. An ambulance was called to the scene.

The accident happened this lunchtime – diversions were set up around Parliament Street as police closed the road to deal with the incident.

The A61 has since re-opened.

North Yorkshire Police has asked anyone who may have seen the collision to contact Mark Hutchings of the major Collision Investigation Unit on 101 or email Mark.Hutchings@northyorkshire.pnn.police.uk.

Read More:

• One week passes without a coronavirus death at Harrogate District Hospital
• Harrogate pub owner decides to make pop-up grocery shop permanent

Debenhams will reopen its Harrogate store on June 15 as retailers in the town centre gear up to bounce back after lockdown is eased.

The department store is preparing to open 50 of its outlets across the UK with strict social distancing measures in place.

Non-essential stores, such as clothing shops and electronic outlets, will be allowed to reopen as of June 15 as lockdown restrictions are relaxed further.

It comes as the future of Debenhams store in Parliament Street was thrown into doubt after the company filed for administration back in April.

Read more:

• Primark announces it will reopen Harrogate store
• Harrogate town centre will be deep cleaned in preparation for shoppers to return. 

Now, the store will reopen with Perspex shields at tills and PPE in place for staff as part of social distancing guidelines.

Steven Cook, chief executive of Debenhams, said the company was looking forward to opening again:

”We are delighted to be welcoming customers back to our stores in the coming weeks. 

“From the installation of perspex screens at till points to the roll-out of social distancing procedures and PPE, we have been working hard to ensure our colleagues and customers can work and shop with confidence. 

“Our reopening plans follow the successful conclusion of lease negotiations on 120 stores, meaning that the vast majority of our stores will be reopening.”

Debenhams could be missing from Harrogate town centre once it re-opens following the coronavirus crisis, after the national chain filed for administration.

It is the second time that the company has called in administrators, and it said the move was designed to get it through the current challenges in order to re-open stores once restrictions are lifted.

However, it is unclear how many and which of its branches will re-open, with 50 permanent store closures already announced. One Harrogate business leader said he was unsurprised by the news, as the chain had been in trouble for some time, and he did not expect the Harrogate store to re-open.

Bob Kennedy, chairman of Harrogate BID, said: “I’m sure there will be a Debenhams that comes out of administration. I would be very surprised if the Harrogate store was part of their plans.”

Mr Kennedy said he felt it was more likely the building would be split into smaller retail units on the ground floor and residential above. Such a large building was not likely to be appealing to many retailers, he said, as changes on the high street continue to affect brands’ needs.

The size of the Debenhams store makes it unlikely to appeal to a single retailer, according to Bob Kennedy

Regarding the pressures on other town centre businesses while the coronavirus continues, Mr Kennedy said the BID is doing all it can to ensure they make a strong start once trading is possible again.

“While nothing can be done physically at the moment, the board members are trying to put things in place so when we do all get re-open we are in the best possible position to try and catch up on some trade we’ve lost,” he said.

 “One of the main priorities is to make sure the town has had a good deep clean. Then to focus on the autumn and the run up to Christmas and making sure we try to have plans in place to make that as good as it can possibly be.

“For all these businesses that have lost an absolute fortune, hopefully it’s a chance to catch up and pull at least some money back.”