The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) is thrilled to announce the launch of The Harrogate Arms Café, a brand-new venture bringing together Harrogate history, the beautiful landscapes of RHS Garden Harlow Carr and freshly-picked ingredients for a unique plot-to-plate experience.
Originally built in 1844 by then-owner of the estate Henry Wright, the Harrogate Arms and the nearby Bath House were set in pleasure gardens which are now part of RHS Garden Harlow Carr.
Originally built in 1844 by then-owner of the estate Henry Wright, the Harrogate Arms and the nearby Bath House were set in pleasure gardens which are now part of RHS Garden Harlow Carr.
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NewsTranscript
00:00So I'm Liz Thwaite, I'm the head of Harlow Car in Harrogate and at the moment we're just
00:11opening our new cafe, the Harrogate Arms, which has been a project that we've been waiting
00:15to do for the last 10 years, so we're absolutely delighted to finally have it open.
00:20We opened it yesterday to the public and we're doing our official opening later this week
00:24where we're inviting the mayor to come and cut the floral garland for us and open it
00:29officially to the local people.
00:32So the project itself, we started, well actually 10 years ago, we bought the Harrogate Arms,
00:37so at the time it was set on sort of an island in the middle of the site, we didn't own the
00:41land and so it wasn't part of the garden, but historically it was always linked to the
00:46bathhouse which is in the garden and we wanted to bring the two buildings back together,
00:49so in 2014 we were lucky enough to have that opportunity, bought the Harrogate Arms and
00:55then it sat still, really, unfortunately for about the last 7 or 8 years and then finally
01:00we commenced work on it several years ago.
01:03So the project has been quite a big one for us, it's involved us relocating the public
01:08right of way, which was once in front of the Harrogate Arms, re-landscaping all of the
01:13two acre plot around it and bringing that into the garden, that's been a real challenge
01:18for us because we've had rain, rain and more rain, as you know, good old Yorkshire we can
01:24be relied on for rain, so yeah we've had lots of rain which has meant that the land's been
01:28really really soggy, but despite that we've ploughed on, we've done some wonderful hard
01:32landscaping and we've got lots of soft landscaping which is being worked on at the moment and
01:37will still come.
01:38And then the cafe itself is going to be, and is actually because we're open now, a wonderful
01:42cafe for our garden visitors so they can come in and enjoy lovely sandwiches and pastries
01:48and hot drinks and many of the ingredients that will be in there will be linked to what
01:52we grow in the garden, so our kitchen garden team are busy growing things and we'll use
01:56those in the recipes that we create, so it's a brilliant opportunity as well for us to
02:00tell people about how important it is to grow your own food and then what you can do with
02:05it once you've grown it, so all in all it's going to be a really wonderful experience
02:08for everyone.