In 1907 a young Swiss baker and confectioner, Fritz Bützer, left his native Alps to travel to England with a dream of establishing his own business.
He spent his first night in the waiting room of Bradford station – penniless, jobless and unable to speak a word of English. Yet, just over a decade later he’d married a Yorkshire lass, changed his name to Frederick Belmont and opened his first Bettys in the spa town of Harrogate.
The ground floor shop at Bettys on Cambridge Crescent
Opening day was 17th July, 1919, and now came a time of ‘either or’, ‘sink or swim’
Frederick in a letter to his sister Ida
4th February 1921
Fritz Bützer – the Swiss orphan who grew up to establish Bettys
The first Bettys café on Cambridge Crescent, Harrogate
Maybe I will stay a while…
Frederick in a letter to his sister Ida on his arrival in Yorkshire
12th September 1907
