Harrogate Council Offices

The council offices were commissioned to replace the old town hall in Swan Road which had been built in 1805.^[1][a] After finding that the old town hall was too cramped, civic leaders at Harrogate Borough Council decided to procure new council offices: the site they selected had been occupied by the old Victoria Baths which had been dismantled by the engineer, Samson Fox, and moved to his home, Grove House.^[4]

The new building was designed by Leonard Clarke, built at a cost of £40,000 and opened by Philip Cunliffe-Lister MP, the President of the Board of Trade, on 31 October 1931.^[5] The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with 28 bays facing onto the Crescent Gardens with the end bays slightly projected forwards; the central section of three bays, which also slightly projected forward, featured a doorway with a stone surround on the ground floor and the borough coat of arms above; there were three windows of the first floor flanked by Corinthian order columns with an entablature inscribed with the borough motto "Arx Celebris Fontibus" (English: "A citadel famous for its springs'") and a pediment above. Internally, the principal rooms were the council chamber, the mayor's parlour and the committee rooms.^[6]

Princess Elizabeth, accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh, entered at the council offices and signed the visitor's book during a tour of the West Riding of Yorkshire in July 1949.^[6][7] In the 1980s a bunker was constructed under the building to protect civic leaders in the event of a nuclear attack.^[6]

After the council decided to procure a new civic centre in February 2015,^[8] a new building, which was designed by Farrell and Clark and built by Harry Fairclough (Construction) Limited at a cost of £11.5 million,^[9] was opened at Knapping Mount in November 2017.^[10] The council offices at Crescent Gardens were marketed by estate agents in January 2015,^[11] but discussions with the initial preferred bidder broke down after the bidder failed to submit a planning application on a timely basis.^[12] The building was then re-marketed and sold to another developer, Impala Estates, in January 2020.^[13][14] Impala Estates revealed proposals to convert the building into offices, together with a gym and a roof garden restaurant, in October 2020.^[15]