| Harrogate Council Offices | |
|---|---|
 Harrogate Council Offices | |
| Location | Harrogate |
| Coordinates | 53°59′42″N1°32′46″W / 53.9949°N 1.5461°W |
| Built | 1931 |
| Architect | Leonard Clarke |
| Architectural style(s) | Neoclassical style |
  Location of Harrogate Council Offices in North Yorkshire | |
The Harrogate Council Offices is a municipal building in Crescent Gardens in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England.
The council offices were commissioned to replace the old town hall in Swan Road which had been built in 1805. [1] [lower-alpha 1] After finding that the old town hall was too cramped, civic leaders at Harrogate Borough Council decided to procure new council offices: the site they selected had been occupied by the old Victoria Baths which had been dismantled by the engineer, Samson Fox, and moved to his home, Grove House. [4]
The new building was designed by Leonard Clarke, built at a cost of £40,000 and opened by Philip Cunliffe-Lister MP, the President of the Board of Trade, on 31 October 1931. [5] The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with 28 bays facing onto the Crescent Gardens with the end bays slightly projected forwards; the central section of three bays, which also slightly projected forward, featured a doorway with a stone surround on the ground floor and the borough coat of arms above; there were three windows of the first floor flanked by Corinthian order columns with an entablature inscribed with the borough motto "Arx Celebris Fontibus" (English: "A citadel famous for its springs'") and a pediment above. Internally, the principal rooms were the council chamber, the mayor's parlour and the committee rooms. [6]
Princess Elizabeth, accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh, entered at the council offices and signed the visitor's book during a tour of the West Riding of Yorkshire in July 1949. [6] [7] In the 1980s a bunker was constructed under the building to protect civic leaders in the event of a nuclear attack. [6]
After the council decided to procure a new civic centre in February 2015, [8] a new building, which was designed by Farrell and Clark and built by Harry Fairclough (Construction) Limited at a cost of £11.5 million, [9] was opened at Knapping Mount in November 2017. [10] The council offices at Crescent Gardens were marketed by estate agents in January 2015, [11] but discussions with the initial preferred bidder broke down after the bidder failed to submit a planning application on a timely basis. [12] The building was then re-marketed and sold to another developer, Impala Estates, in January 2020. [13] [14] Impala Estates revealed proposals to convert the building into offices, together with a gym and a roof garden restaurant, in October 2020. [15]
Harrogate is a spa town in the district and county of North Yorkshire, England. Historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire, the town is a tourist destination and its visitor attractions include its spa waters and RHS Harlow Carr gardens. 13 miles (21 km) away from the town centre is the Yorkshire Dales National Park and the Nidderdale AONB.
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Isaac Thomas Shutt was an architect, a farmer, and the proprietor of the Old Swan Hotel, Harrogate, then in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England, from 1849 to 1879. In 1842, at the age of 24 years, he designed the Royal Pump Room, Harrogate, now a Grade II* listed building. In partnership with Alfred Hill Thompson he co-designed the Church of All Saints, Harlow Hill.
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Malcolm George Neesam was an English historian and writer specialising in the history of Harrogate, North Yorkshire. He was also a librarian and archivist. His major works were the first two parts of a projected trilogy on that subject: Harrogate Great Chronicle, 1332–1841 (2005) and Wells and Swells: The Golden Age of Harrogate Spa, 1842–1923 (2022). The third part was to remain unfinished when he died, although his research papers are preserved in the Walker-Neesam Archive at the Mercer Art Gallery, Harrogate.
George Dawson was an English builder, property developer and alderman. The son of a village labourer, he was a self-made man who started as a cooper, became a rich entrepreneur and built himself a mansion.
David Simpson was an English builder, politician, property developer and contractor who was four times mayor of Harrogate, and three times deputy mayor. He developed the whole of the Duchy Estate, a major residential quarter for the rich, more than doubling the rateable value of the town in the first quarter of the 20th century. He was a member of Harrogate Borough Council for 34 years, making him the "father" of the council by the end of his career there. He was a justice of the peace and the first honorary Freeman of the Borough of Harrogate. He was president of the Bilton Ward Conservatives, a member of the Knaresborough Board of Guardians and an alderman of West Riding County Council. He built himself a large, castellated mansion called Oakdale, in 1903, besides the even larger Grand Hotel in Harrogate in the same year..
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