The Harrogate Arms Café: A unique 'pot-to-plate' experience at RHS Harlow Carr's new café

Now visitors have another treat in store as produce from the gardens is set to take a starring role in its new café which opens on April 25.

The Harrogate Arms Café, which was built originally as a hotel in 1844, will offer “freshly-picked ingredients for a unique plot-to-plate experience”.

The Grade II-listed building has had several guises over the decades, including as The Crag Bar in the 1970s, and more recently as a Thai restaurant. But the building has been closed for over a decade – until now.

Staff and volunteers at the Royal Horticultural Society hope that visitors to the café will be inspired by the new venture to create their own dishes from their gardens.

Having been acquired by the RHS several years ago, the building has had a facelift, with indoor and outdoor seating on the terrace.

Around the courtyard area, espalier-trained hornbeams have been planted to allow herbs and edible plants to be grown around the feet of the trees, while the stone walls in this area will provide shelter and warmth to grow fig trees and other heat-loving plants.

The menu will change daily to reflect the best produce from the kitchen garden, and over the summer will showcase how food can be preserved into winter – from pickled cucumbers to chilli oils.

Originally built in 1844 by then-owner of the estate Henry Wright, the Harrogate Arms and the nearby Bath House, which now serves as an exhibition and event space, were set in pleasure gardens which are now part of Harlow Carr.

The restoration of the former Harrogate Arms is the latest stage in RHS Garden Harlow Carr’s vision for the site. Reconnecting the landscape to the buildings represents an important link with the garden’s past and the local heritage of Harrogate as a spa town.

Run as a spa hotel, up to 80 guests a day were able to “take the waters”. The hotel also featured 10 bedrooms, a smoking room, and a wagonette service which transported visitors to Harrogate and back.

But eventually, interest waned compared to what was available in the town centre and the spa closed in 1922.

Harlow Carr has been open to the public since 1950, and is also home to a garden centre as well as a branch of Yorkshire’s famed tearoom, Bettys.

Liz Thwaite, head of RHS Garden Harlow Carr, said: “We can’t wait to re-open this building which holds so many memories for members of the local community and really look forward to welcoming them back to the new Harrogate Arms Café. This project has been a long time in the making, as we wanted to create something fresh and exciting for our visitors that celebrates our rich heritage.”