| Graham’s Guidelines | * Rating (1 to 5) |
|---|---|
| Coffee | 5* (Normally) |
| Food | 4* |
| Conversation | 4* |
| People Watching | 4* |
The prevailing design of the current generation of coffee shops is sleek, simple, minimalist with a heavy dose of stark white and millennial grey. Sometimes the decor can feel a bit like you have been transported into the Heart of Gold on the TV version of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (old man reference), or the Tardis in series fourteen and fifteen of Dr Who (for the younger ones).
The Skipton Coffee House is about as far removed from this design ambiance as it is possible to be.
The Coffee House is situated within a small set of terraced shops on the outskirts of Skipton on Gargrave Road.
There is room for a couple of cars on short-stay parking just outside, but this is the type of place where it’s worth lingering a while. I recommend finding parking on one of the streets opposite, this has never been a problem when we’ve visited. It is worth saying, though, that the street opposite are steep so you’ll need to be able to navigate a bit of a hill on your Shanks’s pony.
The cafe is upstairs which you access via a narrow stone staircase at the rear of the shop.
Before you dash upstairs, though, it’s worth taking a look around the shop. I suspect that apart from the point-of-sale machine (cash register) little has changed in many decades. It has been operated by the Exchange Coffee Company since 1997 before that it was owned by one Charles A Hallas who roasted on this site for many years.
The decoration upstairs is also little changed, other than in the kitchen area, which you pass on your way to the cafe seating at the front of the building. Here you will find an ambiance that owes much to William Morris and his bold, colourful, intricate wallpapers which adorn several of the walls. The unmatched furniture looks like it has seen all of life several times over. It feels like you are sitting in a lounge than a coffee shop, only it’s a lounge from over 50 years ago. If you are fortunate the fire will be lit and the picture will be complete.
This is only a small cafe but its situation means that there’s normally somewhere to sit, especially if you are willing to share with another customer.
Can I suggest, this isn’t somewhere to take your laptop and definitely not somewhere to join a video conference. Those activities would, for me, feel disrespectful to what this place is. This is more of a book and newspaper place.
The house expresso coffee is good, but I recommend that you take a little time and choose a cafetière with a bit of something locally roasted in it. You could even choose something even more adventurous from the micro-lot board. I can highly recommend the toasted fruit teacake and personally, the cheddar, chive and Marmite scones are lovely but I know that one will split the crowd.
I don’t normally comment on tea, but this is an excellent place to choose a darjeeling, Ceylon, gunpowder or breakfast blend.
You know that this is a place that’s about the drinks when you look at the menu, five pages are dedicated to drinks, a single page covers cakes and toasts.
As for people watching. This is a small room in a friendly Yorkshire market town. It’s often less about people watching than about having a chat with the people in the room. Last time we were there was a bit of an exception to this rule, the other couple who were in had already ordered before we arrived. The woman sat and drank her coffee while looking at her phone, the man arranged to have his four car tyres replaced while on the phone. Even in Yorkshire people don’t always want to engage in a chat.
Can I apologise for the lack of pictures in this post. I’ve realised that I need to get more purposeful about getting pictures I can put in a post. I have pictures, just not ones that I want to put here, fortunately there are some really good pictures via Google Image search. I hope my words are enough to intrigue you into going.
Skipton Coffee House, Roastery and Shop
10 Gargrave Road
Skipton
BD23 1PJ
Graham Chastney 