Tributes paid to Madame Avis

Helen Lela Kyriacopoulou Avis, or Madame Avis as she liked to be addressed, died in hospital on Thursday, May 6, after a short illness.

Born in Athens in 1928, Madame Avis is probably best known in Ilkley for resurrecting the fortunes of the Box Tree restaurant on Church Street.

The Box Tree, a celebrated institution that had fallen on hard times, was acquired from the receivers in 1992. Her eye for a bargain coupled with some negotiation yielded the business at a good price but Madame Avis knew that a life-long passion for great food and fine wine does not a successful restaurateur make.

Her son and daughter said that she harnessed her irrepressible self-belief, determination and sheer force of personality to win over customers and staff alike, and her efforts were rewarded four years later when the restaurant won a Michelin star.

Further honours inevitably followed; most notably The Harpers and Queen Award for most fashionable restaurant of the North, and The Premier Cru Award from Moet & Chandon that recognises individuals who imbue their restaurants with a unique personality.

Her son and daughter, Charles and Alice Avis, were joined in their tributes to her this week by celebrated chef and restauranteur Marco Pierre White.

White, who trained at the Box Tree, this week made his own tribute to Madame Avis, describing her as one of the greatest people ever to walk the streets of Ilkley.

“She was a very special lady and a lady who had great integrity, a lady who always did what she said she would do,” he said. “She will be greatly missed, because without a doubt, she was one of the greatest people to ever walk the streets of Ilkley.”

Born in Athens in September 1928 into a wealthy merchant family, her early years of privileged education came to an abrupt end at the onset of the Second World War, and she was forced to leave her Swiss boarding school to return to Greece.

The family struggled with ever-present threat of starvation, first under the German occupation and then during the ensuing brutal civil war.

The experience of witnessing at close hand the death and injury of close relatives left fundamental scars, but also shaped her very personal sense of perspective. As the eldest of four children, she took on the responsibility of supporting the family when her father was blinded during the conflict.

In 1947 she accepted a scholarship to Athens University to study classics and archaeology in the face of considerable family opposition, supporting herself by working as a tourist guide.

She rapidly became one of the most senior guides in the National Tourist Organisation, having responsibility for looking after the Royal Family, their guests and other VIPs; working for Aristotle Onassis among others.

However, she found that life in the chauvinistic culture that was post-war Greece was too restrictive and stifling for an independently minded young woman, and her path to Ilkley began on the steps of the Acropolis, where in 1954 she met the young man with whom she was to share her life, Anthony Avis, a recent graduate from Cambridge University on a trip with fellow students.

Her mother strongly opposed the match, but Madame Avis was never one to be bound by convention and they were married four years later.

She arrived in Bradford in 1958 and took various teaching roles before settling at Ilkley Grammar School where she taught French for 15 years acquiring her permanent soubriquet, Madame Avis.

After studying for an M.Phil in philosophy of education at York University she decided on a change of career and acquired The Lister’s Arms Hotel in Ilkley.

The purchase of the Ribblesdale Arms at Gisburn followed shortly afterwards and she experimented successfully with brewing her own beer.

In 1978 she acquired the Crescent Hotel in Ilkley, and in 1982 set up a nightclub. Inevitably the latter was named Madame’s and, according to her family, became the perfect vehicle for her extrovert personality.

These interests were divested during the late 80s and early 90s and Madame Avis devoted her time to her first love, The Box Tree, and to her fine wines business.

Her husband was diagnosed with terminal illness in 2002 after which she increasingly lost interest in the business in order to spend more time with him. The restaurant was sold in 2004.

She is survived by her two children; Charles and Alice, her grandchildren, Freddie, Oscar, Emily, Daisy and Lola; and her brother George and sister Toula. She outlived her younger sister, Katie.

Her funeral service will take place at the Greek Orthodox Church, Harehills Avenue, Leeds, on Monday, May 17, followed by private internment at Thalassa, Ilkley.