The search to find tenants for Harrogate‘s former Tourist Information Centre has begun.

‘To Let’ signs were put up on Friday outside the building on Crescent Road, which is part of the Victorian Royal Baths complex.

The rental asking price is £40,000 a year, according to the website of Align Chartered Surveyors, which is marketing the 2,394 square foot property on behalf of North Yorkshire Council.

The website also says the property has a rateable value of £23,500 and a £24,300 service charge, which includes maintenance, waste collection and cleaning costs.

It says:

“The site is one of the most famous attractions of the affluent town, a town whereby domestic visitors alone provide over £640m of investment each year.

“The building is grade two listed comprising Yorkshire stone masonry elevations under multi-pitch and gabled roof. The windows are double glazed with timber framing.”

The Stray Ferret reported in February the council had decided to relocate the Tourist Information Centre in the nearby Royal Pump Room Museum.

Harrogate’s new tourist information service consists of leaflets.

It said in a report the move would enable it to save costs and generate income from the Royal Baths, which has been dogged by low investment returns since the council paid £9.5 million for it in 2018.

The report said the number of visitors to the Tourist Information Centre fell from 135,000 pre-covid in 2019 to 68,000 last year, mainly due to people seeking information online.

It added it was “important to maintain access to the service to support tourism within the area and to provide services for those who are unable or prefer not to use digital services”.

The report said relocation would “improve the tourist information service” and have “minimal” impact on customers.

However, the service has been downgraded to just a desk with leaflets of mainly council services within the Royal Pump Room Museum, which has prompted concern among local businesses.

It means three of the five commercial unites within the Royal Baths are vacant.

Two are occupied by the JD Wetherspoon pub and the Royal Baths Chinese Restaurant but the former Viper Rooms nightclub and Potting Shed bar remain empty, even though the council said in February it had accepted an offer on the Viper Rooms.

Read more:

• What are the options for Harrogate Convention Centre?
• Local business raises concern about new Harrogate Tourist Information Centre

You know how it is — one minute you’re enjoying a street party in Ripon, the next minute you turn around and the Prime Minister is there too.

It actually happened on Easter Monday when Rishi Sunak joined fellow Tory, North Yorkshire mayor hopeful Keane Duncan, in the city.

It was Mr Sunak’s second local visit in as many months, following his trip to Starbeck to support Harrogate and Knaresborough MP Andrew Jones in February. Anyone might think an election is looming…

Who is the man in the background and what was he saying?

Mr Sunak, however, had to play second fiddle to a village idiot in the Stray Ferret reader popularity stakes this week. Our article about the arrival in Harrogate of Andy Smith, a YouTuber who calls himself The Village Idiot, was the second best read this week.

The most popular was a feature about Thompson’s Auctioneers in Killinghall, whose director Kate Higgins talked about the joys of rummaging through possessions and selling them under the hammer.

But perhaps the most bizarre was the disappearance of a 30-foot cockerel in Bishop Monkton. It seems the bird had grown so big it was no longer manageable.

Pic: Bishop Monkton Today

Harrogate’s Tourist Information Office has also vanished from its former premises in the Royal Baths complex. It now exists as what appears to be little more than a desk at the Royal Pump Room Museum. Its apparent downgrading has prompted concerns about whether it will be able to promote local businesses.

By contrast, Harrogate Town has well and truly arrived in recent years. The club is enjoying a golden age under father-and-son owner and manager combination Irving Weaver and Simon Weaver. It’s hard to believe the Sulphurites are in a league above York City, have just thumped Bradford City and are on the fringes of the League Two play-off race.

But newly published accounts this week revealed how much the club depends on Irving. Good luck to Town against Notts County this weekend. Let’s hope the good times keep rolling for a while yet.

Read more:

• Revised plans submitted for 126 homes in Knaresborough
• Ripon man admits impersonating a police constable in Harrogate
• Local business raises concern about new Harrogate Tourist Information Centre

A Harrogate business owner has raised concerns about the lack of business exposure at the new Tourist Information Centre.

North Yorkshire Council announced in February it would permanently close the former Tourist Information Centre on Crescent Road and re-open in the nearby Royal Pump Room Museum.

The move will enable the council to reduce costs and generate rent from its former premises in the Royal Baths, which has suffered low commercial investment returns since the council paid £9.5 million for it back in 2018.

But the new tourist information section within the pump room is much smaller than the old building, which has raised concerns about its ability to provide the same service and to promote local businesses.

Neil Thomson, owner of jewellery and art shop Inger & Rae and jewellery and gift shop Shine in Westminster Arcade, raised concerns with the Stray Ferret after tourists told him they “struggled to find” the arcade.

Mr Thomson told the Stray Ferret:

“Visitors in the arcade all say how beautiful it is but that they knew nothing about it. There aren’t any signposts despite its architectural significance.

“The arcade also hosts 10 independent businesses, all of which are thriving despite the lack of interest from the council.

“There is a huge unwillingness to even mention places which aren’t council run.”

Inside Westminster Arcade.

Mr Thomson said he approached staff at the Pump Rooms, as well as a local art gallery, requesting to put leaflets about Westminster Arcade on display.

He said both sites told him they “could not give information leaflets to the public”.

He added:

“We wish to promote Westminster Arcade as an important visitor attraction. It is a superb example of Victorian architecture, and the only Victorian arcade in Harrogate.

“Visitors to Harrogate want to be able to access a full range of information when they are here in person, in the town.

“If we all work together, and promote ALL the positive and varied attractions Harrogate has to offer, visitors will have a much better experience and will be far more likely to return.”

Mr Thomson, who also has a shop on King’s Road, said he was also told the new Tourist Information Centre would be manned “only by digital tablets” and there would “not be any staff”.

This only added to his concerns, he said.

The Stray Ferret put Mr Thomson’s concerns to the council and asked if the new site would really be manned digitally.

The council’s corporate director of community development, Nic Harne, today said:

“The staff at the venue are trained to deal with both museum and visitor information queries. Facilities available incorporate leaflet displays, maps and retail with digital touchscreens to follow within the coming weeks, for those who wish to use them.’’

The tourist information section of the pump room.

Mr Harne also said merging the museum and Tourist Information Centre was a “more up-to-date model of visitor service provision”, adding it enabled the council to operate the two services during the same hours.

The council said the new Tourist Information Centre at the Pump Rooms is now open, and the digital screens will be installed in the next few weeks.

Read more:

• Ripon man admits impersonating police constable in Harrogate
• Harrogate’s Crescent Gardens fencing to remain for ‘foreseeable future’

The finishing touches were applied to a mural on Harrogate’s Cold Bath Road today.

Simon Colgan, owner of The Last Post pub, commissioned artist Richard Duffield to create a Harrogate-themed mural on the side of the building.

After seven days of work, a bright image of the town’s famous Royal Pump Room Museum now greets passers-by on the busy street.

Mr Duffield told the Stray Ferret it had been a difficult assignment because of the pebble-dash surface but he hoped people would like it.

It is the latest stage in the transformation of The Last Post since Mr Colgan took it over less than a year ago.

Read more:

• Bilton’s iron bridge mural suffers worst graffiti attack yet
• Historic deal will see Ripon end years of neglect from Harrogate, says councillor

The Royal Pump Room Museum in Harrogate has sent more than 700 of its finest historical artefacts to Swansea University in a collaboration which should provide deep insights into ancient Egyptian history. 

The collection, which has not been fully researched for over a decade, is on loan for three years and will now be studied by experts at Swansea’s award-winning Egypt Centre. Swansea University is one of only a handful of UK universities to offer degrees in Egyptology. 

May Catt, visitor and cultural services manager at Destination Harrogate, said:

“This is a fantastic chance for us to be able to learn important information about our Egyptian collection and where it came from. We look forward to being able to share this with visitors of all ages, both digitally and through new exhibitions and displays. 

“We are fortunate to have such rare and exciting antiquities at the Royal Pump Room Museum and our project with Swansea University offers us a wonderful opportunity to showcase our museum’s cultural significance on an international platform. 

“We are particularly pleased to be involved with this exciting project this year, which marks the 70th birthday of the museum in Harrogate.” 

Harrogate’s Egyptian collection includes a spectacular coffin from the Third Intermediate Period (c. 1000-700 BC); stone stelae; a large collection of pottery; amulets and shabtis (figurines used in ancient Egyptian funerary practices), as well as a renowned Anubis mask, which is the only one of its kind in the world. There are also several Etruscan mirrors and a large collection of cuneiform tablets, bricks, and cylinder seals.

Ken Griffin of Swansea University’s Egypt Centre inspects a spectacular coffin from Egypt’s Third Intermediate Period (ca. 1000-700 BC).

The loan also offers an opportunity to learn more about the origins of Harrogate’s Egyptian antiquities, whilst raising the profile of the Royal Pump Room Museum. The objects were donated by two local collectors, Benjamin Kent and Harrogate jeweller James Roberts Ogden, whose great-great-grandsons still run Ogden of Harrogate on James Street. 

While Kent purchased his at auction, Ogden appears to have obtained his items straight from the source – he acted as an adviser to Howard Carter, who famously discovered the tomb of King Tutankhamun in the Valley of the Kings in 1922, creating a worldwide sensation. 

Egypt Centre curator Ken Griffin said the project, called Rediscovering Egypt, would provide an ideal opportunity for the collection to become better known to researchers. 

Dr Griffin said:  

“The Harrogate loan is a major coup and reflects Swansea University’s position as a leading institution for Egyptological research. Having the collection here will allow us to refresh the Egypt Centre’s displays, while also making the objects available to researchers from across the globe.

“And, in the year that the Egypt Centre celebrates its 25th anniversary, it is rather fitting that this loan is taking place now.”

Three shabtis (funerary figurines) of Seti I, including a faience example believed to be among the finest ever produced, are included in the artefacts on loan.

The collection held permanently by Swansea University’s Egypt Centre is currently on public display online, and Harrogate’s Egyptian collection will be added to the site later this year, with photos and 3D models of the objects, to enable visitors, university students and staff to view the rare Egyptian items, while discoveries about the relics are made and shared.

Read more:

• Harrogate’s Royal Pump Room Museum closes for refurbishment
• Ripon museums secure more than £400,000 from Arts Council
• Harrogate’s link to the discovery of Tutankhamen’s tomb, 100 years ago