The Last Flight of Halifax JB837
25/26th May 1943

Bettys Cafe Tea Rooms

Bettys and Taylors of Harrogate is a family-owned company based in Yorkshire with five Bettys tea rooms, each of which includes a shop as well as a café. The locations of the current tea rooms are:

• Bettys Harrogate – Parliament Street, Harrogate (opened 1976)
• Bettys York – St Helen's Square, York (opened 1937)
• Bettys Northallerton – High Street, Northallerton (opened 1971)
• Bettys Ilkley – The Grove, Ilkley (opened 1964)
• Bettys Harlow Carr – RHS Harlow Carr, Harrogate (opened 2004)

The first Bettys tea room was opened in Harrogate in 1919 by Frederick Belmont, a Swiss confectioner.

'Bettys Bar'

The St Helen's Square café in York became particularly popular during World War II, when the basement "Bettys Bar" was frequented by "Bomber Boys" stationed around York.

Frederick Belmont had secured a liquor licence a few years before WWII broke out and opened a cocktail bar on the ground floor and a further bar in the basement. This was very popular with local servicemen who nicknamed it 'The Dive' or 'The Briefing Room' because they often first heard operational details here before their official briefings. 'Bettys Mirror', on which many of them engraved their signatures with a diamond pen, remains on display at this branch, bearing the names of nearly 600 servicemen (including Australians and Canadians), many of whom failed to survive the war.