Crown of Springs: Emblem for Harrogate

On 15 January 2026, at the launch of Harrogate Town Council in the Mercer Art Gallery, a new emblem for the town was unveiled.

Designed by George Eglese, the Crown of Springs is intended as a contemporary mark of place for Harrogate. It is not a replacement for the civic coat of arms, but a wider symbol for the town itself, drawn from the natural phenomenon that first gave Harrogate its purpose.

Harrogate grew around an extraordinary concentration of mineral springs. Sulphur, saline, chalybeate and magnesia waters rose from the ground across High and Low Harrogate, drawing physicians, visitors and patients in search of health. The spa town, its architecture, gardens, institutions and culture all followed from that original relationship between water and place. The Crown of Springs returns to this source.

Its name reflects the mineral waters beneath the town, but also the idea of Harrogate as the crowning place of many springs. The form can be read as a crown, a fountain, a series of rising waters, leaves, flames or new growth. It brings together the natural and cultural forces that have shaped Harrogate: water, landscape, health, beauty, discovery and renewal.

Harrogate’s identity began with water emerging through the earth. The mark is therefore both historical and forward-looking. It takes something ancient and elemental and gives it a contemporary expression.

At the unveiling, Eglese presented the Crown of Springs as a unifying emblem that the town could rally around, helping to connect Harrogate’s spa inheritance, public spaces, cultural life, organisations, institutions and communities through a shared visual mark.

Rooted in the waters beneath Harrogate, it offers a shared emblem through which the town can recognise its origins, express its character and project itself confidently into the future.