Harrogate Then and Now...

I had taken a bit of a rest from my occasional series of blips using old photos of Harrogate and how the same sites look today. This is my first such blip in 2019.

The subject is a bit contraversial because a number of my contemporaries remember being taken to this shop when they were children to buy school uniform (I didn't live in the town at that time).

They are usually adamant that the store was this one but in a different position (actually facing the mono shot in this image). By coincidence, I took my blip yesterday whilst sitting on the bench in the lower picture. I was facing Subway which appears to have similar dimensions to the clothing store.

But the rest of the block doesn't match the old picture. I am convinced that the dormer windows above and behind the clothiers are the same as the first six such structures on today's picture. I suggest the original store simply moved across to where Subway is today, probably before my friends were born, and the original building was replaced by the much larger one which is there today. There might even have been another building that came and went in between.

I have spent the day poring over old photos like these, preparing a talk I am giving tomorrow afternoon. Perhaps someone in my audience of pensioners might be able to shed more light on the subject.