Set in Stone Harry Mount

‘A CITADEL FAMOUS for its springs’ – that’s the English translation of Harrogate’s Latin motto Arx Celebris Fontibus. Here it is, painted over the door of Harrogate’s Royal Pump Room.

The handsome, classical Royal Pump Room was built in 1842 to take advantage of Harrogate’s sulphur springs. First discovered in 1571 by William Slingsby, the mineral springs led to Harrogate becoming a spa town in 1770.

You can still see the site of the spring in the Royal Pump Room, but it stopped catering to those taking the waters after the war. In 1953, the Royal Pump Room became a museum, as it remains today.

Nevertheless, Harrogate’s golden spa days have an effect on the town today. The fine Georgian and Victorian buildings – built for the spa crowd – are much sought after. It has a fine Georgian theatre and a vast park, the Stray, pro- tected as a public space since the spa’s foundation.

On top of all this, Harrogate’s many hotels – another spa legacy – make it the ideal conference town. As a result, it’s one of the richest towns in Yorkshire. The arx still owes an awful lot to its fontibus.

Until a century or so ago, Harrogate was popular among the beau monde. The Royal Pump Room Museum has a poignant corner devoted to the 1911 visit to the spa by Tsarina Alexandra of Russia. Seven years later, she was dead, executed by the Bolsheviks.