The Scarbrough Hotel 200th Anniversary

Andy Hutchinson meets Toby Flint, the Landlord of The Scarbrough Hotel, as the Leeds City Centre pub reaches a memorable milestone.

Transcript

00:00 Hi, it's Andy Hutchinson. Here I am outside the Scarborough Hotel, the historic Leeds

00:06 City Centre pub with 200 reasons to celebrate.

00:09 200 years, 200 years of serving the public of Leeds. Lots of memories.

00:17 Yep, well, originally the medieval moat house was sited on this location, turned into a

00:25 pub in the 1820s. The original owner was a guy called Henry Scarborough, hence the name

00:31 of the site. It's gone through a few changes over the years. The frontage was changed in

00:36 the 1920s. We expanded into the section over there, we'll show you in a bit I'm sure, 1899.

00:43 And yeah, through wars, through disease, through all sorts, the Scarborough has been a massive

00:48 part of Leeds City Centre, yes. Many folk know this pub.

00:51 And you've had one or two famous faces as well, haven't you, coming through the doors

00:54 over the years?

00:55 Yes, the most famous that I can, that I've found is Charles Dickens, who came in the

01:01 mid-1800s. Not a massive fan of Leeds itself, apparently, although Leeds would have been

01:06 a bit of a smoky place back in those days. George Henry Lavenue, if the name, impresario

01:12 from back in the day, and List, the composer, both stayed here when it was a hotel back

01:20 in the day.

01:21 It's known as the Scarborough Hotel, like the Seaside Town, but with the first O missing.

01:26 And for years and years, and I was under the impression that was because the original owner

01:29 was called Henry Scarborough. However, during the research for our 200 years, we noted in

01:36 the 1830s, I've got a little thingy there to show you, it might be that we've been spelling

01:40 it incorrectly for all this time. We think around the turn of the 1900, it seems to have

01:47 changed, but no one can work out the reason why. It'll be very hard to change it back

01:51 as well.

01:52 It's a mystery.

01:53 Yes, it is, yes.

01:54 There's some link to theatre land in Leeds, isn't there, with this pub? The City Varieties

01:58 in particular?

01:59 Yeah. So Fred Wood was the owner in the late 1800s. He died in 1913. He owned here and

02:06 the City Varieties, and that enabled him to put acts on here, upstairs, it's now my flat

02:13 and bedroom. Upstairs, he used to do auditions and talent nights, and those people, if they

02:19 were any good, he would then take them up and put them on at the City Varieties, and

02:24 for too much fame, I'm sure. And there aren't enough proper pubs in Leeds. There's a lot

02:28 of bars, etc. It should always be a pub for everyone. It's funny, you get people in work

02:33 clothes occasionally, you come in, "Can we come in?" And like, everyone can come in,

02:38 as long as you behave. So it should be that. It should be a pub for everyone, for the Leeds

02:43 folk, for foreigners, for students, for everybody. Not too many bells and whistles, keep it simple,

02:49 keep it clean, do a good job.

02:52 Toby, thank you.

02:53 It's great to see Toby speak so passionately and enthusiastically about the pub. It's also

02:58 great to have a look behind the scenes and have a look at the cellar, and also see the

03:02 history on the walls.

03:03 (fire roaring)