A large part of the building housing The Tapas Bar was built on the site of Reiley's Yard. After the "Great Fire of Darlington" in 1585, which destroyed most of the town centre including 273 houses, The Old Yard eventually housed over 60 dwellers in the most squalid of conditions.

Darlington never had enough houses for a market town on the main coaching route between Scotland and London, therefore, by 1800 the yards had grown to over 200 in number and by 1865 the population of the yards alone had risen to 15,000!

A typical house in a Bondgate yard was usually 10 x 5 metres, hence speculative builders could erect a house in 1840 for as little as £50! To dodge window tax these dwellings had very few windows and were let for six shillings a week. But even this was beyond the purse of most folk, so rooms were sub let at a cheaper rent. In one unnamed yard, conditions were so crowded there were four different families living in each corner of the room!

The last domestic occupants finally vacated the Darlington Yards in 1966!