Glittering event next week will revive memories of Harrogate's spa history
Harrogate's Royal Pump Room Museum is to hold a special launch event for a new book which revives memories of when the town was a key spa destination.
After the discovery of medicinal springs by William Slingsby in the 16th century, Harrogate became became one of Britain's first holiday resorts in the 18th century.
Its status as one of Europe's great spa towns for the aristocracy and royalty was cemented with the opening of the Royal Baths in 1897.
Its heyday may have ended after the First World War and hit a low with the end of the Royal Baths’ role as an NHS hydrotherapy treatment centre in 1969.
But the town's spa reputation lingers on.
Its award-winning 19th century Moorish-style Turkish Baths, boasting glazed brickwork and painted ceilings, remains popular with visitors to this very day.
Now the Royal Pump Room Museum, which was formerly a spa water pump house, is to celebrate the launch of a new book which delves into the representation of spas and health resorts like Harrogate’s in European literature.
Organised by the publicly-owned Mercer Art Gallery, next Tuesday evening’s event will feature a presentation by authors Astrid Kohler and Henrike Schmidt.
Published by Bloomsbury, The Health Resort in Modern European Literature reappraises the spa in literature from the late Enlightenment period to the wellness age of the 21st century.
Karen Southworth, Curator (Exhibitions) at Mercer Art Gallery, said: "Our colleagues in the European Spa Network, Astrid Kohler and Henrike Schmidt, believe that the spa or health resort still has a lot to say to us in the 21st century."
The new book’s focus is not just on sickness and health but also European society in its different versions.
Although the Royal Baths is now occupied by a Chinese restaurant, civic groups in Harrogate remain keen to emulate locations on the Continent where spa towns thrive to this day on the healing power of water.
Spa Event details
Tuesday, March 11, 5pm to 6.30pm.
Royal Pump Room Museum, Crown Place, Harrogate.
Glass of fizz on arrival.
Presentation by Astrid Kohler and Henrike Schmidt.