Brown plaque № 41191

This brown commemorative plaque records: HALE'S BAR Inns were established near the world's strongest sulphur well by the 1660 s and the antiquity of Hale's Bar is shown by its cellars, as such excavations were prohibited by an Act of 1770. The Inn would have been known to Tobias Smollett who in 1766 visited Harrogate in which he set part of his novel 'Humphrey Clinker'. It was a lively coaching inn, with coaches such as 'The Courier', 'Tally Ho!' and 'Teazle' arriving and departing. Known as the 'Promenade Inn' after the opening of the nearby Promenade Room in 1806, it changed it's name to 'Hodgson's' (c.1849) before adopting the name of it's new landlord, William Hale, in about 1882. Enlarged to the east in 1856, the inn was a favourite with Sir John Barbirolli who visited Harrogate each summer with the Halle Orchestra throughout the 1950's and 1960's. Hale's Bar still retains its gas-lit, early Victorian interior, used in 1980 for publicity shots for the film 'Chariots of Fire' 1997 Recorded plaque organisation: Harrogate Borough Council.

Hale's Bar, established near Harrogate’s strong sulphur well by the 1660s, served as a significant coaching inn and later became associated with notable figures like Tobias Smollett and Sir John Barbirolli, preserving an early Victorian interior that was featured in 'Chariots of Fire'.