Bettys and Taylors of Harrogate - Tea Rooms

Tea Rooms

There are currently six Bettys tea rooms, which all comprise a shop as well as a café. The locations of the tea rooms are:

• Bettys Harrogate - Parliament Street, Harrogate
• Bettys York - St Helen's Square, York
• Bettys Stonegate (formerly Little Bettys) - Stonegate, York
• Bettys Northallerton - High Street, Northallerton
• Bettys Ilkley - The Grove, Ilkley
• Bettys Harlow Carr - RHS Harlow Carr, Harrogate

The St Helen's Square café in York became Bettys' York flagship. It was inspired by the magnificent RMS Queen Mary cruise liner and became particularly popular during World War II when the basement ‘Bettys Bar’ became a favourite with hundreds of American and Canadian ‘Bomber Boys’ who were stationed around York. ‘Bettys Mirror’, on which many of them engraved their signatures with a diamond pen, remains on display at the branch today.

In 1962 Bettys joined forces with another Yorkshire business, family tea and coffee merchants, Taylors of Harrogate, who still manufacture Yorkshire Tea and Taylors of Harrogate Coffee.

Until 1976 there was a Bettys tea room in Commercial Street, Leeds in premises now (as at February 2008) used as a mobile phone shop. There was also a tea room in Bradford, on Darley Street.

Bettys have refused many times to open a branch outside Yorkshire, claiming that keeping Bettys small means a watchful eye can be kept on every detail.