Harrogate Station Square

A Memory of Harrogate.

Here is Station Square appearing as its architects intended, an open airy town centre piece. The gardens in the foreground are the Coronation Gardens of c.1953, which complimented the Victorian square admirably. Just as this picture was being taken, the lovely old and deliberately 'low roofed' railway station was being totally ruined by the new overscale Station Tower and new station foyer. Looks like Checks' Cafe in the background is boarded up and it wouldn't be too many years hence that the Market Hall and the Coronation Gardens (and their useful public conveniences) would be swept away in the name of progress, with the gross criminal loss a bit later of the re-buildable Victorian Lowther Arcade and the West Yorkshire Road Car Co bus station, where we all met our dates on a Saturday night under the clock. Harrogate needs to move with the times but didn't deserve this onslaught. These are some of the fond memories of a 1950-born Harrogate child coupled with a heavy heart!