Updated Nightclubs Top 10 + Harrogate Arms gets in touch!

New info keeps pouring in after the Harrogate Advertiser's recent stroll down memory lane into the Harrogate nightclubs which are no longer with us in the period from the 1970s to the Noughties.
Popular 1990s nightclub The Harrogate Arms on Crag Lane, Harrogate.Popular 1990s nightclub The Harrogate Arms on Crag Lane, Harrogate.
Popular 1990s nightclub The Harrogate Arms on Crag Lane, Harrogate.

And one of Harrogate's most famous nightclub managers of old even contacted us out of the blue after readers on Facebook posted they were fans of the Harrogate Arms.

Graham Wright, who ran the Harrogate Arms in the 1990s with a smile and a rod of iron, got in touch with the Harrogate Advertiser saying: "I dearly miss everyone from the Arms days but we keep in touch via Facebook.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

"Some of the old gang had a reunion at the Shepherd's Dog in Harrogate earlier this year, that was a really good night. I do believe another one is planned soon."

By the way, if you never went there in person, the Harrogate Arms' very dark but relaxed basement was a well known haunt of alt, rock, grunge, indie and dance music fans in the 1990s.

Jenny Bradley, who says she was a big fan of the Eleven Club plus L'escalier as well as the Harrogate Arms, kindly got back in touch to offer a lot of valuable intelligence about the nightclub scene of the past across the Harrogate district:

"In my 'towny' phase Legends and Carrington's and later Thomas's as used to mostly go to the pubs in Knaresborough then into Harrogate for the clubs.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

"But my heart really lies in rock music so the Pump Rooms, Rum Runner and Harrogate Arms and out of town places that had live bands like the Sun Inn at Norwood and the Water Mill at Pateley Bridge."

Reader Suzan Smith has also provided more vital info on one of Harrogate's best-loved old nightclubs which we are grateful for.

She said: "The Bali Hai was a short lived 'Hoffbrauhouse' in the early Seventies, owned by the same company as the Intercon, John and Peter Owen who owned it started their 'empire' with the Countdown on Cheltenham and later sold it to Mecca.

"Those who worked for the company then included Richard Nunn and Doug Kendal who went on to be landlord at the Queen's Head in Kettlesing."

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

C Ingham emailed to say: "That was a nice memory lane trip of an article, although the Bali Hai was on Cheltenham Parade, I'm sure.

"It was no longer open when I was a teen but the facade was up for a fair while before it became (possibly) a carpet warehouse.

"Google Street View tells me the site is now Sukhothai. And Jenny Bradley is correct, Legends was the name of the club in the basement of Copthall Tower until at least 1990."

Caroline Allen also threw The Mix into the, er , mix. Located, we think, just along from Pinocchio's restaurant (now Cardoman Black) on Cheltenham Parade, this short-lived club had an unusually good music policy (if we remember correctly!).

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Other names dragged out of people's nightclub subconscious include the Bali Hai, which reportedly became Josephines (Darren Roberts remembers DJ-ing there), Gemini at the bottom of Station Parade (which had a Northern Soul night), Legends, Cardinal Sins, and a few which were really bars rather than nightclubs such as The Glue Pot.

Bev Robinson remembers Picassos nightclub being below Pinocchio's.

Nicola Benson remember Flares, whose location, we reckon, was on Parliament Street where The Restaurant Bar & Grill is now.

Finally, Katie Swannie suggests Bar Med, which night have been on Parliament Street near what is now Wetherspoons.

NEW! Latest greatest Harrogate Nightclubs of past 40 years

Top 10

1. Bali Hai (Josephines). Commercial Street, Harrogate.

2. Jimmys (The Old Bourbon). King's Road, Harrogate.

3. Harrogate Arms. Crag Lane, Harrogate.

4. L'escalier. King's Road, Harrogate.

5. Flares. Parliament Street, Harrogate.

6. Intercon. Copthall Towers, Station Parade, Harrogate.

7. Carringtons. Station Parade, Harrogate.

8. Ministry of Sound's Minibar. Parliament Street, Harrogate.

9. The Mix. Cheltenham Parade, Harrogate.

10. Zero. Station Parade, Harrogate.