In 1671 Harrogate’s first custom built hotel, The Queens Head opened its doors. Named after Catherine of Briganza, consort of Charles II, who was granted the revenues of the Royal Forest in 1665, and who reigned as Queen until the death of Charles in 1685.
The new inn was ideally placed, being on the busy road between Harrogate and Knaresborough, York and Wetherby, equidistant from the Tewit Well and the Sweet Spa, facing the former across the common, and surrounded with farms from which came an abundant supply of good quality food.
The Queen’s Head was built at the south westerly point of a triangular piece of forest common which over the centuries had been surrounded by enclosures. Within a few years, two further inns opened at the north east and north points of this triangle: the Granby and the Dragon. The former, known as the ‘Sinking Ship’, grew into the Granby Hotel and the latter, the Dragon, took its name from one of Charles II’s racehorses.
As High Harrogate grew, the emphasis on the Chalybeate wells did not result in the sulphur wells being entirely overlooked. Deane in ‘Spadacrene Anglica’ refers to the ‘stinking wells’ as being three in number: one in Bilton Park; one in Starbeck, and one in Low Harrogate, which later became the world famous Old Sulphur Well.
When Dr Short’s monumental study of English mineral waters was published in 1740, drinking of and bathing in Harrogate’s waters had become fashionable and Harrogate’s accommodation was well established.
At High Harrogate, the four principal Inns were the Dragon, the Granby, the Queen’s Head, and the Salutation, with at least three other smaller establishments, including the World’s End.
In Low Harrogate, the Crown, with its favoured location next to the Old Sulphur Well, and the precursors of the Swan, Crescent, White Hart and George were probably well on the way to becoming the great establishments for which they were later celebrated.