The Harrogate Story at West Park Centre welcomes visitors and locals alike, offering the opportunity to explore what makes our town unique.

The Harrogate Story...Explore the Heritage and Discover the Town...

More than 60 million years ago, movements in the Earth’s crust shaped the unique geology that gave rise to 88 distinctive mineral springs, found nowhere else on Earth.

These remarkable natural springs helped shape the growth of Harrogate, establishing the town as the original well-being destination.

The first spring was discovered in 1571, and the recognition of the curative properties of the spring waters led to the growth of the town and subsequent development of Harrogate as Britain's health resort.

Visitors came believing the springs could cure everything from skin conditions and infertility to cancers and what we would now recognise as mental health conditions.

The town developed around these mineral waters, and the extraordinary landscape and open green spaces created a pioneering health resort where well-being was understood holistically, long before the idea became fashionable.

1. Water for the body

Take the waters. Bathe. Restore.

2. Nature for the mind

Walk, breathe, move and reconnect with the landscape.

3. Culture for the spirit

Meet, listen, watch, eat, dance and be entertained.

Harrogate’s ethos brought all three of these together (represented in our logo), creating the distinctive approach to health and well-being that shaped the town.

Taking the Harrogate Water
Taking the Harrogate Water
Serving Harrogate water
Taking the Harrogate Water

Exhibition

*

Exhibition *

The Harrogate Story has been curated by a small team of volunteers and is based largely on books published by the late Malcolm Neesam, widely recognised as one of the town’s leading historians.

A series of displays explain how William Slingsby, a local man, discovered the first spring and recognised the curative properties of the spring water and so began the growth of Harrogate as a health resort

Supplementing the history of the Spa are displays showing the Royal Hall – Harrogate’s “Glittering Palace of Gold” and displays prepared by local historian and author, Dr Paul Jennings, focusing on the social history of the town during the 1800’s and early 1900’s.

Video footage from Harrogate’s Spa heyday, narrated by Edward Fox OBE, a descendant of Alderman Sampson Fox, a major benefactor to the town, gives visitors a taste of how the wealthy spent their time.