How the Yorkshire institution that is Betty’s came about…

Most people up North are familiar with the Yorkshire institution which is Betty’s Café & Tearoom, with their traditional posh afternoon teas, immaculate silver service, fat rascals and amazing cakes! Now with café’s at 5 locations around the region I thought I would shed some light on the story behind the brand.

The history of Betty’s involves a man called Fritz Butzner…

Fritz Butzer was a Swiss orphan who left home and travelled around Europe learning many trades along the way. Later changing his name to the more cosmopolitan Frederick Belmont, he became a skilled confectioner, baker and chocolatier.

He had always had a dream about visiting England, so in 1907 he boarded a boat and crossed the Channel.

Fritz Butzer (later Frederick Belmont)

His plan had been to try and find work on the South Coast, but somehow he managed to board the wrong train and ended up in Bradford. Betty’s legend has it that when he arrived in London from Paris, that he had lost the papers with his intended destination, but remembered the place sounded a bit like Bratwurst (the German Sausage), so after enquiring with a helpful passer-by was directed to a train to Bradford! (I can’t seem to find out where the actual location he was meant to head to sounding like Bratwurst actually was!).

After spending the night in a waiting room at Bradford train station, he decides to stay in Yorkshire and found work at Bonnet & Sons, a Swiss owned confectioner in the city.

After further years of training as a chocolatier, he moved around other parts of Yorkshire having officially changed his name and applying his trade under the guise of “F.Belmont -  Chocolate Specialist”.

By 1915 he had moved to the upmarket North Yorkshire Spa Town of Harrogate. Four years later he opened his first Betty’s Café at 9 Cambridge Crescent.

Where the name Betty’s comes from no-one knows, but there are a few theories as to who Betty was…

Betty Rose – Elisabeth “Betty” Rose, the granddaughter of Mary Wood, the financial backer and the first Chairman of Betty’s. Betty was said to have interrupted an early board meeting carrying a toy tea tray. This seems to be the favourite theory!

Betty Lupton – She was known as the Queen of the Wells. Harrogate being a spa town where people visited to take the waters, Betty Lupton used to serve spa water to visitors in the 1800’s. Letters from Frederick to his sister Ida show that Frederick understood the towns upmarket Spa heritage.

Betty the Musical – a theatre show about a rags to riches story of a kitchen maid named Betty who marries a young Duke. It is believed that Frederick and his wife had seen the play.

All interesting theories but we will never know.

The success story of Betty’s continued with a second Betty’s opened in Bradford in 1922, before Betty’s Leeds opened up to great fanfare in 1930, then one in York in 1937.

The York Betty’s which still exists on St.Helen’s Square was inspired by the interior of The Queen Mary Liner, which Frederick and his wife Claire had been on its maiden voyage the year before.

I often find that my overseas guests have heard of Betty’s and many choose to visit under their own steam whilst staying in York or Harrogate.

Interesting that Betty’s now offer an Afternoon Tea with or without a glass of champagne. But this tradition started way back in 1927, when Betty’s launched a “Yorkshire Tea” with a selection of cakes and sandwiches served traditionally on a cake stand with tea served in the best China cups.

Sadly, Frederick Belmont died in 1952 in his office in Harrogate. His nephew Victor Wild took over the business at just 29. One of his successes was to buy C.E. Taylor & Co which sourced blended tea and coffee – a massively successful business still today which makes the famous Yorkshire Tea.

Whilst Betty’s café’s opened up in Ilkley and Northallerton, the Leeds and Bradford café’s closed down. Then more recently in 1976, the original Betty’s in Harrogate moved to its present location at 8-11 Cambridge Crescent.

In 2019 Betty’s marked its centenary, and a plaque was unveiled in Harrogate in honour of Frederick Belmont by his nephew Victor Wild who was still involved in running the business. It is a great success story as you can tell by the long queues outside the café’s throughout the week.

I’m sure when Fritz boarded the boat to England, that he never imagined it would become such a grand, popular, famous Yorkshire institution.