 | |
 Club house at 36 Victoria Avenue | |
  North Yorkshire | |
| Founded at | The Gascoigne's Hotel, Harrogate (1857), then Victoria Avenue, Harrogate (1886) |
|---|---|
| Type | Originally: Gentlemen's club. Today: Social club for both sexes. |
| Location |
|
| Coordinates | 53°59′29″N1°32′00″W / 53.9914°N 1.5332°W |
| Website | www |
The Harrogate Club is a private members' club, open to men and women, based in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England. Founded in 1857, it is located on Victoria Avenue, Harrogate. [1]
The club was founded at the Gascoigne’s Hotel, Harrogate in 1857 by a group of professional men. In 1885 the Club’s Committee, with funds raised from the members, decided to construct a Club House, [2] at an ultimate cost of £3,000 (equivalent to £347,674in 2021). [3] [4] The Pateley Bridge and Nidderdale Herald reported that plans were approved by Harrogate Borough Council on 2 April 1885, [5] and the Borough Surveyor certified the building on 17 April 1886, however the architect's name was not given. [6] Since the plans were later found in possession of the architectural firm which was in the 1880s owned by architect Arthur Bown (1851–1916), [7] [nb 1] of Harrogate, it has been concluded that Bown designed the building. [4] [8] The purpose-built Club House was opened on 25 March 1886 at 36 Victoria Avenue, Harrogate and has remained the Club's home ever since. [2]
The Club displays a number of marble busts and paintings from the Mercer Art Gallery under a 2016 agreement with Harrogate Borough Council, [9] and other artefacts, which are shown to the public regularly as part of tours provided for Heritage Open Days. [10] [8]
Membership is open to both men and women. Membership categories include, full membership, country membership and young members' membership. In return for an annual fee members are entitled to a number of benefits including the ability to entertain friends and guests, attendance at a programme of social events and admission to selected reciprocal clubs.
Notable former members of The Harrogate Club include, Titus Salt, English industrialist and philanthropist; Samson Fox, Engineer, Industrialist and philanthropist; Cuthbert Broderick, British architect, [11] as well as Ferdinand de Rothschild. [12] The late Harrogate historian and writer Malcolm Neesam (d.2022) was an honorary member from the 1990s, [13] and the club's dining room has been named after him: The Malcolm Neesam Dining Room. [14]
The Harrogate Club has reciprocal arrangements with a number of clubs worldwide, these include The Sloane Club and The National Liberal Club in London, The Liverpool Athenaeum, The New Club and The Royal Scots Club in Edinburgh, The Sociedad Bilbaina in Spain, the Union International Club in Frankfurt, The Brisbane Club in Australia, The National Club in Toronto, Canada, The Cape Town Club and Rand Club in South Africa, The University Club of Chicago and The University Club of San Francisco. [15]
Notable visitors to The Club include Scottish physician and author, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. [8] The magazine Great British Life has suggested that J. R. R. Tolkien may have been a visitor to the club. [16]
In September 2011 The Club appeared in an episode of Who Do You Think You Are featuring Emilia Fox, the great, great granddaughter of past member Samson Fox. [17]
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.
The Borough of Harrogate was a local government district with borough status in North Yorkshire, England. On 31 March 2023 it was abolished and on 1 April 2023 its functions were transferred to the new North Yorkshire Council.
Skipton and Ripon is a constituency in North Yorkshire represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2010 by Julian Smith, a Conservative.
Pateley Bridge is a market town in Nidderdale in the county and district of North Yorkshire, England. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, it lies on the River Nidd. It is in the Yorkshire Dales and just outside the Yorkshire Dales National Park.
Nidderdale, historically also known as Netherdale, is one of the Yorkshire Dales in North Yorkshire, England. It is the upper valley of the River Nidd, which flows south underground and then along the dale, forming several reservoirs including the Gouthwaite Reservoir, before turning east and eventually joining the River Ouse.
The Nidderdale AONB is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in North Yorkshire, England, bordering the Yorkshire Dales National Park to the east and south. It comprises most of Nidderdale itself, part of lower Wharfedale, the Washburn valley and part of lower Wensleydale, including Jervaulx Abbey and the side valleys west of the River Ure. It covers a total area of 233 square miles (600 km2). The highest point in the Nidderdale AONB is Great Whernside, 704 metres (2,310 ft) above sea level, on the border with the Yorkshire Dales National Park.
Nidderdale Museum is a local and social history museum in the market town of Pateley Bridge in Nidderdale, one of the Yorkshire Dales, in North Yorkshire, England. The museum is housed in a former workhouse, and is normally open every day from 1.30 p.m. to 4.30 p.m. from 1 April to 31 October, and on Saturdays and Sundays from 1.30 p.m. to 4.30 p.m. over the winter. There is a small entry charge for adults. Accompanied children are free.
Nidd Gorge makes up a section of the River Nidd in North Yorkshire, England, in which the river enters a deep ravine with sheer tree-covered valley sides. The river as a whole flows from its source near Great Whernside in Nidderdale, to its confluence with the River Ouse near Nun Monkton. Nidd Gorge makes up approximately 3 miles (4.8 km) of the entire length of the river, and stretches from the now defunct Nidd viaduct at Bilton in Harrogate to Grimbald Bridge, just south of Knaresborough.
The Nidd Valley Railway was a 11.5-mile (18.5 km) long single-track branch railway line that ran along the valley of the River Nidd in North Yorkshire, England. Built by the North Eastern Railway, it ran from Ripley Junction, on the Harrogate to Ripon Line, to Pateley Bridge via five intermediate stations, Ripley Valley, Hampsthwaite, Birstwith, Darley, and Dacre.
Tewit Well, also known in its early days as "Tuit" or "Tuewhit", is a spa water well, the first chalybeate source discovered in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England.
Nidderdale High School is a coeducational secondary school located in Pateley Bridge, North Yorkshire, England. The school is named after Nidderdale, one of the Yorkshire Dales in which the school is located.
High and Low Bishopside is a civil parish in Nidderdale in the Harrogate district, in the county of North Yorkshire, England. It includes the town of Pateley Bridge and the villages of Glasshouses and Wilsill, the southern part of Wath and the hamlets of Blazefield, and Fellbeck. The parish touches Bewerley, Dacre, Eavestone, Fountains Earth, Hartwith cum Winsley, Laverton, Sawley, Stonebeck Down and Warsill. In 2011 the parish had a population of 2,210. There are 39 listed buildings in High and Low Bishopside. The parish's council is called "Pateley Bridge Town Council".
Thomas Holroyd was an English portrait and landscape painter working in Harrogate, North Riding of Yorkshire, England. Before his marriage he undertook painting tours to the United States, Canada, Europe, Egypt, Russia and the Holy Land. Returning to Harrogate, he painted portraits of the local worthies there. He shared responsibility for the successful photography business T & J Holroyd with his brother James, and continued to run the business after his brother died. Holroyd was a founding member of Harrogate Liberal Club.
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.
H. E. and A. Bown was an architectural practice in Harrogate, North Riding of Yorkshire, England, in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Its two partners were Henry Edwin Bown who started the business and died at the age of 36, and his brother Arthur Bown, who carried on the business until he retired in 1911.
The Jubilee Memorial, Harrogate, is a Grade II listed building. It is a Gothic Revival stone memorial in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England, commemorating the 1887 golden jubilee of Queen Victoria. It was donated to Harrogate by its mayor, Richard Ellis, designed by architect Arthur Bown, and unveiled by the Marquis of Ripon.
Grove Road Cemetery, Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England, was formerly known as Harrogate Cemetery. It was established in 1864 after the spa town expanded and the graveyard at Christ Church became full. The cemetery once had a pair of chapels with spires, designed by Thomas Charles Sorby. Although they were admired by local residents who felt it enhanced the town view, they were demolished in 1958. However the lodge and gates, also designed by Sorby, remain.
Robert Ackrill was an English journalist, newspaper proprietor, founder of newspapers, printer and writer, working for most of his career in Harrogate, England. During the 19th century he owned six newspapers in the North Riding of Yorkshire via his company Ackrill Newspapers, having founded three of them. Ackrill's descendants and relatives continued to run or be involved with Ackrill newspapers for at least a hundred years, the final incarnation of the company under that name being dissolved in 2020.
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.
Daniel Schwarz was a German trumpeter, and the band leader of the travelling Schwarz Band from Hinzweiler, Germany. His home town had a strong musical culture, so although he was a smallholder in Germany, in the summers he would work in the manner of the West Palatine Wandermusikanten, who would travel as musical entertainers throughout Europe in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Schwarz's venues in England were the Raikes Hall Gardens at Blackpool where he was bandmaster and also in the Oddfellows' Hall, Pateley Bridge and in Harrogate, North Riding of Yorkshire.
Media related to The Harrogate Club at Wikimedia Commons