With extensive hotel experience (this is her ninth major hotel project, and number ten, a new Radisson in Durham, is under way) local designer Jill Holst has skilfully amended the existing oak joinery, typified by extremely deep skirtings which have had to be cut and altered to allow for new doorways, for example. It needs an expert eye to spot where old and new mix, and the contractor and the designer have taken great care to ensure the sensitive repolishing and restoration of the 19th century oak panelling that is a feature of much of the public spaces.

With a Chef as the new owner, it is not surprising that the landscaping and gardens outside the hotel include such delights as rhubarb plants flourishing outside the main reception entrance, whilst herbs and cloches decorate other borders. With a Michelin star already in place at the owners restaurant in Durham it would be surprising if the target wasn’t similar here, especially as food and a named chef is these days such a useful marketing tool for hotels. In Berlin it is possible to see huge front windows of hotels featuring images of the chef ,which the staff can proudly name even though most will not be able to tell you the name of the hotel’s designer. Our profession obviously needs some serious design TV instead of makeovers using pieces of hardboard and decorator waffle! A 'Laurence L B’s F Word' perhaps?

The owner has respected the old building in the brief to the architects and designers. Echoes of the old abound, even in the names of the spaces. The lounge, with a previously external window now providing a view from the reception desk, is known as the Billiard Room with no billiard table in sight but instead a mix of contemporary furniture, including commissioned pieces in walnut. The existing open fireplaces are kept, although the hotel is inhibited from having log fires by health and safety considerations (that damned Elf in Safe Tea again), robbing guests of the aural and olfactory delights of logs, burning instead smokeless coal. Even so the cheerful effect of real flames and the heat they throw off are a welcome sight to a traveller arriving in the damp and chill of a winter evening in England’s north east. Strangely in litigation ridden USA, the Mohonk Mountain Resort in New York State actually gives guests logs each night for them to have log fires in their bedroom fireplaces, so is Jesmond Deane just being a little pusillanimous?

"it is possible to see huge front windows of hotels featuring images of the chef,which the staff can proudly name even though most will not be able to tell you the name of the hotel’s designer"

External windows have been turned into openings through to the new reception area, allowing staff to see guests and ensure good levels of service. If you arrive early and your room is not ready you can take tea in front of the fire and will be seen from reception and so hopefully not forgotten.