This building was once the home of W.H. Baxter (1849-1936), inventor of a mechanical road-knapping process and also a great public philanthropist. In 1909 he presented St. George’s Cathedral, in Cape Town, with a fine William Hill Organ, and in 1911 paid for the widening of Harrogate’s Walker Road (re-named Kings Road) whose ornamental railings were in memory of King Edward VII. In 1928 he paid for road safety improvements at Almsford Bank, later endowing Harrogate Boy’s Club, and funding the floodlighting of St. Luke’s Church.

Florence Nightingale visited Harrogate in 1852, in company with her Aunt, staying in this York Place House then occupied by Mrs. Wright’s lodgings. She went on to improve the wretched hospital conditions of British soldiers in the Crimea, reform medical and sanitary standards and raise the quality and status of nursing.

Opened on 13 January 1900 as the Grand Opera House, designed by F.A. Tugwell, with a fine foyer frieze by Frances Darlington added later, the building was refurbished in the mid -1970s and 2007-9 and is home to theatrical activities that have flourished in Harrogate since the 1760s. Performers who have appeared here include Sarah Bernhardt, Mrs Patrick Campbell, Charlie Chaplin, Sonia Dresdel, Trevor Howard, George Robey, Ellen Terry, Arnold Ridley, Fats Waller, Ken Dodd, Martin Shaw, Ben Kingsley and Eddie Izzard. Home of the White Rose players 1933-1955.

This pure water well is fed from the natural ground waters of the Springfield Estate to the north of this plaque. The shaft appears to have been built between 1780 and 1830, the water being used to supply a neighbouring farm. Following the 1911 gift of W.H. Baxter (inventor of the road knapping process), which created a tree-lined promenade in memory of King Edward VII, the disused well was paved over. On restoration of the Kings Road Promenade in 2010, the well was rediscovered, and with the support of Harrogate Chamber of Trade & Commerce and Harrogate in Bloom, it was made a feature of the improvements.

An important Chloride of Iron well was discovered on this site in 1818. On 27th July 1835, businessman John Williams opened his Royal Promenade and Cheltenham Spa Rooms – known as the Spa Rooms – which contained a fine assembly hall and pump room. Designed by Leeds architect John Clark in the form of a Greek temple fronted with a portico of six Doric columns, the Spa Rooms were Harrogate’s principal place of entertainment until the opening of the neighbouring Kursaal in 1903. Charles Dickens gave a public reading in the Spa Rooms on 11th September 1858. In 1897 they were purchased by Harrogate Corporation. After the Spa Rooms 1939 demolition, the Doric columns were re-erected in Harlow Carr gardens. The site remained empty until the erection of this Millennium Exhibition Hall in AD2000 for the Harrogate International Centre.

This store covers the site of Belle Vue, home of the remarkable Royal Navy Captain Thomas Thrush (1761-1843), who taught himself Greek to read the earliest form of the gospels, and who consequently came to believe that a military career and Christianity were incompatible. He caused a national sensation in 1822 by writing to King George IV on “The Unlawfulness of War” and, at great personal hardship, resigned his commission in 1825. After his death, Belle Vue was bought by Rev. Fielde, whose widow bequeathed the house for use as a vicarage, and the orchard as site for St. Peter’s Church. The house was demolished in 1969 for the extension of a 1933 store.

St. Andrews, the Police Treatment Centre, was established by charity worker and philanthropist Catherine Gurney OBE (19th June 1848 – 11th August 1930), who, concerned with police welfare, set up police convalescent homes and orphanages. In January 1898 the former private St. George’s School in Harrogate was re-opened as The Northern Police Orphanage, later known as St. George’s House, the Convalescent Home being contained in the same property, until a new building, St. Andrews designed by H. S. Chorley of Leeds and built at a cost of £9,500 was opened on 16th May 1903 by Viscountess Mountgarret. St. George’s was demolished in 1876 but St. Andrews remain as a valuable amenity where injured police officers receive the latest treatments and therapies to assist their recovery.

Grove House, originally a late 17thC Inn known as “The World’s End”, was rebuilt in the 18thC but by 1807 had become a school run by Barbara Holland, author of “A Season at Harrogate”. In 1882, it became the principal residence of Yorkshire Industrialist, inventor and philanthropist Samson Fox (1838-1903) who, between 1887 and 1890, enlarged it to plans by T. Butler Wilson. Here, Samson Fox, further developed his inventions of the corrugated boiler flue and the pressed steel railway undercarriage, and also developed Water-Gas and many other inventions. Mayor of Harrogate 1889-1892, it was at Grove House that Samson Fox financed the building of the Royal College of Music in London. Used as a hospital during the Great War, Grove House was acquired by the Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes, who in 1927 converted it into an orphanage, thus saving the magnificent building and its grounds. After the Second World War, Grove House became an RAOB Convalescent Home.

Before 1848, only aristocratic or wealthy classes could visit Harrogate, but the opening in that year of railway lines to Brunswick and Starbeck stations enabled greater numbers of the general public to visit the town in search of health and leisure. Visitors had to travel to central Harrogate by horse-drawn carriage or donkey cart, but in 1862 the North Eastern Railway Company constructed a link line with a new station in the developing area of central Harrogate. Designed by company architect Thomas Prosser, who had also designed York Railway Station, the new station was the first public building in Harrogate to be built of brick. In 1896, an improvement programme provided extended platforms and a beautiful glazed entrance canopy, by which time the station boasted eight platforms. At this time, the often exclusive nature of Harrogate’s visitors entitled the Station Master the rare honour of wearing a silk top hat. In 1965 the Victoria Station building was replaced by the present structure designed by Harold Taylor as part of a tower block development. This plaque was presented by Northern Rail in 2012 to mark the 150th anniversary of the opening of central Harrogate’s Railway Station. British monarchs who have passed through it have included King George V, Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth II.

The footway of this ancient pack horse bridge was re-laid in H.M. Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee year by Ringway Infrastructure Services, assisted by volunteers from Bilton Conservation Group and Knox Valley Residents’ Association with funds from : Harrogate Civic Society, Killinghall Parish Council, Knox Valley Residents’ Association, Nidd Valley Road Runners, North Yorkshire County Council, The Local Community.

This statue has been donated to Harrogate by Mrs Frainy Ardeshir in loving memory of her husband’s sister Mrs Mehroo Jehangir. Sculpted in France by the notable artist Charles Raphael Peyre, the statue was exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1913 titled ‘La Douche’. It was purchased by Sir Dhunjibhoy Bomanji for his principal home, the Willows, in Windsor. It remained at Windsor until the 1950s when Lady Bomanji moved to her Harrogate residence, owned by the family from the mid-1920s. Well known and a generous benefactor to Harrogate, Lady Bomanji was awarded the Freedom of the Borough in 1984. In all her good works she was ably supported by her daughter Mehroo, who continued the family tradition of service and generosity to the town until her own death in 2012.

Her Royal & Imperial Highness, Marie Georgievna Romanova, known as the Grand Duchess George of Russia, was visiting Harrogate when the Great War began. She founded hospitals and convalescent homes, for wounded servicemen, including Tewit Well, Heatherdene, St. George’s and St. Nicholas’s, funding them generously and nursing patients herself. Her hospitals treated nearly 1,200 casualties between 1914 - 1919 in an outstanding act of humanity. The adjacent memorial cross was given to Harrogate by the Grand Duchess in 1921 to commemorate patients who died of their wounds.

Thomas Rutling was born into slavery in Tennessee in 1854. After emancipation in 1865, he enrolled at the newly-founded Fisk University in Nashville, joining the famous Fisk Jubilee Singers in 1871. During an 1873 tour of Europe, the singers performed for an appreciative Queen Victoria. Rutling remained in England, where he gave recitals and worked as a voice teacher, moving to Harrogate where he was known as “The African Tenor”. Living at 97 Valley Drive at the time of his death on 26th April 1915, Rutling’s friends paid for his funeral and plot in Grove Road Cemetery.

Antonio Fattorini was born on Lake Como in Italy in 1797. Following the Napoleonic wars he moved to Leeds where he traded in bric-a-brac. In 1831 he and his wife moved to the fashionable resort of Harrogate, to serve the summer visitors. His “Oriental Lounge” was at 14 Regent Parade where he lived and worked, returning to Leeds for the winter. One of his sons, also named Antonio, carried on the business, opening new premises at 2 Royal Parade. In 1884, “Antonio Fattorini the Jeweller” moved into this building at 10-12 Parliament Street, built by George Dawson in 1866-1868. By 1900, Antionio’s sister Maria, and her husband John Tindall joined the business. “A. Fattorini the Jeweller” is Harrogate’s longest established business and the Tindall family continue to run it today.

The earliest name for this building was the Salutation Inn which some ascribe to proximity to Harrogate’s pre-reformation Chantry Chapel, abolished in 1549. By 1740, the Salutation Inn’s location by the turnpike roads and St. John’s Well made it an important stop for such coaches as the “Alexander” and “Highflyer”. By 1800 the inn was double its present size, with spacious stables at the rear. Renamed the “Hope” in 1803, Gascoigne’s in 1820 and the County in c.1890, the inn was the location for the Harrogate’s Gentlemen’s Club at its establishment in 1857. The detached wine and spirit vault or “Safe” at the rear of the building was constructed in 1815 and is a rare surviving example which was listed in 2000. Shortly after 1900, the Inn’s southern wing was demolished for the building of Dorchester House and in 2000, after the closure of the County Hotel, the building was adapted for an Asian restaurant. A major reconstruction of 2013-15 saw the building converted into twelve apartments.

In April 1852 A.J. Crowther leased this plot of building land from the Duchy of Lancaster and built a villa named “Araucaria” after a Monkey Puzzle tree in the garden. Home of the Gallsworthy family until 1912, the villa was sold to a newly formed company, “Stray Hotel and Hydro Ltd”, one of whose Directors was William Peacock, Managing Director of Harrogate Theatre. In 1914, the company built the large extension to the south of the original villa, the hotel becoming a favourite resort of visitors to the Spa, one of whom was Chancellor of the Exchequer Neville Chamberlain. Requisitioned by the Government during the Second World War, the building housed offices of the Post Office, the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries “West Riding War Agricultural Executive Committee”. Following dissolution of the hotel company in 1945, the building was acquired by the Wilkinson Company of Leeds and converted into Stray Towers, with eighteen flats, the success of which led in 1960 to the erection of a further block to the north – Strayside Court. A major refurbishment of the building and grounds occurred between 2013-2015.

Laura Veale, the first Yorkshire woman to become a doctor, overcame strong hostility from the medical profession to enter the Royal Free Hospital Medical School where she qualified in 1904. After working for six months in Leeds, she moved to Harrogate where, as the town’s first woman doctor, she established her practice at 3 Victoria Avenue. Throughout her career she promoted the welfare of children and women, founding a small dispensary in New Park which became the nucleus of Harrogate Infirmary’s Women’s and Children’s Department. Appointed as gynaecologist in 1913, Dr Veale fought for 25 years to create a maternity department at Harrogate Hospital, which was eventually opened in 1937, and her efforts to found an infants’ welfare centre led to the creation of a clinic at 2 Dragon Parade. After retiring in 1936, Dr. Veale supported many local organisations before her death in 1963, aged 95.

A national charitable hospital opened near this spot on 6th April 1826 to enable the sick-poor of the United Kingdom to benefit from the healing springs designated part of Harrogate’s Stray by the Great Award of 1778. Built on land given by the Earl of Harewood, the Bath Hospital was funded by a national subscription headed by his Majesty George IVth, & Harrogate’s Hotels & Inns. Infectious cases were not admitted, to protect the Spa’s image as a health resort, and at first, the hospital was closed during the winter. In 1875 it was granted exclusive rights to Bogs Field wells 5, 10 & 14 for an annual rent, and the 1872 gift from the Earl of Harewood of an adjoining field enabled the overcrowded hospital to be rebuilt. After a competition assessed by Alfred Waterhouse, the prize was awarded to Messrs Worthington and Elgood of Manchester, and on 9th September 1885, Lord Harewood laid the foundation stone of the new Bath Hospital, with Lord Mountgarret laying that for the adjoining Rawson Convalescent Home. The entire £30,000 project was funded by charitable donations including gifts from Queen Victoria, the Harrogate Waterworks Company and Samson Fox. After a three year building programme, the new Bath Hospital was opened on 18th July 1888, by His Royal Highness Prince Albert Victor, K.G., Queen Victoria consenting on 15th October 1889 to the hospital becoming the Royal Bath Hospital. During the Great War of 1914-1918 the hospital placed itself at the disposal of the War Office, the first military patients being received on 4th December 1914 and when the conflict ended some 4,106 military casualties had been treated. On the outbreak of war in 1939 the hospital was designated as an air raid casualty base, but soon reverted to civilian admissions, and after the war, it participated in the University of Leeds’ investigation into rheumatic diseases. The Royal Bath Hospital became part of the new National Health Service on 5th July 1948, continuing its healing work with both Spa and conventional medical treatments until finally closing in 1994 when the buildings were converted to residential use for Crosby Homes in a scheme designed by Richard Eves Architects. For much of its existence, the hospital’s patients and visitors benefited greatly from the beauty & peace of the adjoining Valley Gardens.

Local inventor and philanthropist William Henry Baxter presented these gates to Harrogate in 1911 as part of a memorial to the reign of King Edward VII from 1901 to 1910. Known as ‘the Peacemaker King’ for his work in fostering good relationships with other European countries, the King provides a fitting link with the adjacent restored rose garden commemorating the centenary of the armistice that ended the Great War of 1914-1918. The gates originally stood on King’s Road, where they formed the main entrance to the Rose Gardens: they were dismantled in 1994 to make way for exhibition space. Friends of Valley Gardens conceived the project, raised funds to restore and install the gates in 2016/18 and provided the inspiration for the creation of the Memorial Garden in partnership with Harrogate Borough Council. Opened by Co Cllr R Windass, Chairman NYCC and Cllr B Bateman MBE, Mayor of Harrogate 26 November 2018.

Author & Bookseller Ely Hargrove (1741-1818), who published Harrogate’s 1st guide book in 1775, moved his shop from Church Square to this newly built Regent Parade location in c.1800 where he set up a subscription library that became popular with visitors, being mentioned in Sir Walter Scott’s 1823 novel “St. Ronan’s Well”. In c.1819 it was acquired by William Langdale who continued the business, issuing from September 1820 a “Weekly List” of visitors’ names and their hotels. In 1834 this was rivalled by Pickersgill Palliser who added a Stage Coach timetable before expanding it in1836 as the “Harrogate Advertiser”. The subscription library closed in c.1857, the building then being converted for residential use.