★ Whitby · 7 Baxtergate · since 1928, in a 1905 Midland Bank
Whitby’s oldest fish and chips cafe, on a cake stand.
Trading on this site as Mill’s Cafe since 1928, in a building completed by the Midland Bank in 1905. Run today by Lois Kirtlan and her family, who took on the cafe in 2018 and gave it the name of their daughter. The signature dish is the Fish and Chips Afternoon Tea, on a tiered cake stand for two, and the room upstairs is still the same first-floor ballroom that has hosted Whitby weddings since the 1940s.
7 Baxtergate · the 1905 Midland Bank · two minutes from the swing bridge
4.1 ★From 400 TripAdvisor reviews
2021 to 2025Five years of Travellers’ Choice
12:00 & 14:00Afternoon tea sittings
1928Cooking fish and chips here
The story
From the Mills family to Hetty and Betty. One cafe, one site, three names, since 1928.
In 1928, the Mills family bought part of the ground floor of the new Midland Bank on Baxtergate and opened Mill’s Cafe, serving fish and chips and home-cooked food. The bank had finished the building in 1905. The Mills family ran the cafe for the better part of a century, holding wedding receptions, Whitby Post Office children’s Christmas parties, and the Royal Mail workers’ staff dinners in the first-floor ballroom upstairs from the cafe counter.
By the 2010s the cafe had passed out of the family, declined through a series of owners, and traded for a few years under the name Harbour View. In 2018, Lois Kirtlan and her partner David took it on, mid-season, with a small daughter and a hospitality background between them. They renamed it the year after, in 2019, after their daughter Hetty and a niece. The Fish and Chips Afternoon Tea went on the menu.
“A neglected, forgotten about cafe in the centre of Whitby, brought back as the oldest fish and chips cafe in the Yorkshire coast town that used to be a bank.”
1905
The Midland Bank completes the building at 7 Baxtergate. The branch trades from the ground floor; the first floor is the ballroom upstairs from the day the doors open.
1928
The bank carves off part of the ground floor and sells it to the Mills family. Mill’s Cafe opens, serving fish and chips and home-cooked food on the proper Yorkshire plate. The cafe has not stopped serving fish and chips on this site since.
1940s
The first-floor ballroom becomes the Whitby Post Office and Royal Mail workers’ children’s Christmas-party room. A 1949 Christmas wedding reception is held there. A 1946 penny is found under the floorboards during the 2020 renovations.
2014
After a long decline through the 2000s the cafe is renamed Harbour View. The Yorkshire Post describes it by 2018 as “a neglected, forgotten about cafe in the centre of Whitby.”
2018
Lois and David Kirtlan take on the cafe mid-season. Lois has worked in hospitality for years, taken a career break after the birth of her youngest child, and is looking for a family-run business. They begin the restoration.
2019
The cafe is renamed Hetty and Betty, after the Kirtlans’ daughter Hetty and a niece. The first wedding is held in the upstairs room in December. The Fish and Chips Afternoon Tea goes on the menu.
2024
The first-floor room is renamed the Peacock Suite. Civil-ceremony licence granted. Federation of Small Businesses Growth and Expansion Award (Yorkshire and Humber). Theo Paphitis Small Business Sunday winner.
Today
Whitby’s oldest fish and chips cafe, run by Lois Kirtlan. Five-year TripAdvisor Travellers’ Choice (2021 to 2025), 4.1 stars from 400 reviews. Insider Magazine 50 Most Exciting Yorkshire Companies 2025.
Four parts of the cafe
The cake stand, the proper plate, and the room upstairs.
The dish that put the cafe on the map. The dish Mill’s Cafe has served on this site since 1928. The first-floor wedding suite. The private dining room off the main floor.
01The dish that put us on the map
Fish and Chips Afternoon Tea
Cake stand for two · book the day before for the 12:00 or 14:00 sitting
A tiered cake stand of golden-battered haddock goujons with chunky double-fried chips, mushy peas, our own tartare sauce, bread and butter, and a warm scone with clotted cream and Yorkshire rhubarb jam. Loose-leaf Yorkshire tea by the pot, or upgrade to a glass of sparkling. Featured in the Yorkshire Post, the Yorkshireman, BBC Radio and Yorkshire Life.
For two · gluten-free with 24 hours notice · sparkling upgrade available
02Cooked the way Mill’s Cafe did, since 1928
Whitby fish and chips, on the proper plate
Walk-ins from twelve · haddock or cod, Whitby-landed when the fleet is in
Haddock or cod from the Whitby fleet when they are running, beer-batter mixed fresh, hand-cut chunky chips fried twice (a first pass at 130°C in the morning to set the structure, the final pass at 180°C to order), mushy peas, scraps on request. The dish this site has served continuously since 1928. The Mills family started serving it, the Kirtlans have served it since 2018.
Whitby haddock 14.95 · cod 12.95 · scraps on request
03Upstairs, where the 1949 wedding was
The Peacock Suite
First floor · 10 to 40 guests · civil-ceremony licensed since 2024
The first-floor ballroom of the former bank, where the Mill’s Cafe Christmas wedding receptions were held from the 1940s on. Renamed the Peacock Suite in 2024 when the civil-ceremony licence was granted. The suite hosts the ceremony and the breakfast in the same room, for 10 to 40. Halloween Gothic dinners, Christmas parties, Mother’s Day sittings. Stairs only, no lift.
Enquiries via celebrate@hettyandbetty.co.uk · the same kitchen, the same Yorkshire produce
04Off the main floor
The Harbour Dining Room
Private dining room · 10 to 12 guests · dog-friendly
A private dining room off the main restaurant for a family lunch, a birthday meal, a small business gathering. Same kitchen as the cafe, with a set or seasonal menu by arrangement. Vegan and gluten-free with 24 hours notice. The well-behaved Whitby terrier is welcome in the corner.
Enquiries via bookings@hettyandbetty.co.uk · vegan and GF with 24 hours notice
The building · 1905 to today
A working bank in 1905. A working cafe by 1928.
The Midland Bank (later HSBC) finished construction of 7 Baxtergate in 1905, on the high street running inland from the swing bridge. The bank traded from the marble counter on the ground floor; the first-floor strong-rooms became, over time, the ballroom that hosted the Mill’s Cafe Christmas wedding receptions of the 1940s.
The original bank-vault doorway is still visible in the back wall of the rear dining area. The first-floor ballroom is now the Peacock Suite. A 1946 penny was found under the floorboards during the 2020 restoration, dating to the Mills-family fish-and-chips years. The marble counter is gone; everything else stayed.
1905Built by Midland Bank
1928Sold to Mills family
Grade IIListed building
est. 1928Mill’s Cafe · in the 1905 Midland Bank · 7 Baxtergate, Whitby
The fish-and-chips afternoon tea
The English ritual, and the Whitby export. On the same cake stand.
Afternoon tea is the national ritual. Fish and chips, in a Yorkshire-coast harbour town, is the local one. Most cafes do one or the other. The Fish and Chips Afternoon Tea layers them on a single tiered cake stand and refuses to make either side a gimmick. The fish is still Whitby-landed haddock when the fleet is in, the batter is still beer-and-flour mixed fresh, the scone is still warm with Yorkshire-rhubarb jam and clotted cream, the tea is still loose-leaf by the pot.
Double-fried chips, the proper way
Chunky chips are blanched at 130°C in the morning to set the structure, then finished at 180°C to order. A two-fry chip holds heat through the cake-stand presentation. A single-fry chip drops temperature halfway through tea and goes leathery.
Coeliac-safe with 24 hours notice
The gluten-free version is cooked in a separate fryer with a separate basket and a separate utensil set, and the scone is from a dedicated GF batch. Notice is needed because the dedicated batch is baked the morning of, not held cold.
The scone window, twice a day
Scones are baked in batches of twelve in the Peacock Suite kitchen upstairs, twice a day, to keep the warm-scone window narrow on each 12:00 and 14:00 sitting. Cold scones never reach the cake stand.
Tartare made on Baxtergate
The tartare sauce is made in-house in small batches with Whitby-caught capers and a gherkin from a Pickering grower thirty minutes inland. The tartare alone earns the second-visit reviewers.
Cake stand for two · haddock goujons · warm scone · loose-leaf tea
In the room
Three scenes from 7 Baxtergate.
The main floor · friends sharing the cake stand
The long table · family at twelve
The Peacock Suite · first-floor ballroom
Visit Baxtergate
Two minutes from the swing bridge.
7 Baxtergate is on the high street running inland from the Whitby swing bridge to Skinner Street, the same street as Botham’s of Whitby (1865). Five minutes from the railway station, ten minutes uphill to the 199 steps and the Abbey. Marina Road car park is five minutes on foot, the Park-and-Ride drops a short walk up Baxtergate.
7 Baxtergate · Whitby YO21 1BW · two minutes from the swing bridgeOpen in Google Maps ↗
FAQ
Five questions the front counter hears every week.
Where are you, and how far is it from the harbour and the Abbey?+
7 Baxtergate, Whitby YO21 1BW. Two minutes’ walk from the swing bridge and the harbour, five minutes from Whitby railway station, ten minutes uphill to the 199 steps and the Abbey. The Marina Road car park is five minutes away on foot, the Park-and-Ride drops you a short walk up Baxtergate.
Is this really the oldest fish and chips cafe in Whitby?+
Yes, and it sits in a building older still. Mill’s Cafe opened on this site in 1928 and has been serving fish and chips here ever since. The Midland Bank built the building in 1905; two decades later they carved off part of the ground floor and sold it to the Mills family. We are the same site, the same dish, under three names. Botham’s of Whitby (1865) is the older institution overall, on Skinner Street and Baxtergate, but they are a bakery and tea room, not a fish and chips cafe.
Do you take bookings, and which sittings do you have?+
Two sittings a day, at 12:00 and 14:00, for the afternoon tea. The main restaurant takes walk-ins around them; Saturdays seat from twelve until they fill. The Peacock Suite (upstairs) is bookings-only, by email to celebrate@hettyandbetty.co.uk. Office hours for replies are 10 to 3 Monday to Thursday.
Can you do gluten-free or vegan?+
Yes. The Fish and Chips Afternoon Tea is available in a coeliac-safe version with 24 hours notice. We use a separate fryer, a separate basket and separate utensils. The vegan version of the cake stand uses a battered halloumi or tofu (your call), the same chips, the same mushy peas, with a vegan scone and dairy-free spread on the upper tier.
Was the building really a bank, and can we still see the vault?+
Yes, on both counts. The Midland Bank (later HSBC) had the building constructed in 1905. The bank carved off part of the ground floor in 1928 and sold it to the Mills family. The original bank-vault doorway is still visible in the back wall of the rear dining area. The first-floor Peacock Suite was the bank’s strong-rooms-then-ballroom layout in the 1940s.
