Waiting Rooms

Needing two trains to get to today’s football at Harrogate inevitably meant some time waiting around, but that did not necessarily have to be on a draughty platform: at York station the Costa is rather charmingly located in what must have been the stationmaster’s lookout tower, at little eyrie of calm perched above platform 1, its scruffy Georgian paned windows giving me a 360° panorama of the hustle and bustle of the Saturday travellers – stags, hens, football fans and shoppers – while a cup of decent coffee was supped, albeit from a double banked festive paper cup, but even that was useful when the time came to board the connecting train; on my return journey the wait was at Harrogate where the conveniently adjacent Harrogate Tap, splendidly old fashioned and atmospheric with its wood panelling, glass and mirrors, provided a convivial half of USA Sessions IPA, chosen at random from a bewildering array of pumps along its extensive bar.