Using his flair for interior design, the owner of Acklam Hall has transformed Middlesbrough’s only Grade I listed building into a restaurant and wedding venue. Lucy Richardson takes a tour

Acklam’s Hall’s motto “aut nunquam tentes, aut perfice” meaning ‘”either do it perfectly or don’t do it at all’”, aptly describes Neil Whittingham’s passion for an incredible 18-month restoration project resulting in his Restoration mansion throwing open its doors to the public once again in impeccable style.

As owner and custodian of the hall, which was built in 1683, Neil knew exactly how he wanted it to look - a nod to its past while paying homage to his favourite hotels across the world, but not slavishly following contemporary trends. When he struggled to find a professional interior designer able to translate his vision, he boldly decided to do it himself - armed with creative flair and colouring pens.

Sitting in the formal Brierley dining room, casting his eagle eyes over every detail of his finished creation, he says he is thrilled with the end result. “What you see in here is a collection of all the design inspirations I’ve had over the past ten years. From London to Hungary, there’s a piece of all of them. My wife says the lights remind her of the ones in Fortnum & Mason, the black porter chairs are like the ones in Onyx restaurant in Budapest and the colour palette is influenced by the Covent Garden Hotel.

“The ornate ceiling flowers have been preserved but instead of painting them, we’ve reflected those colours in the furniture below. The last thing I wanted to do was create a pastiche that looked like 1912. My aim was to move it on,” says the property developer, who lives near Osmotherley, North Yorkshire.

As we chat a member of the public wanders past, eager to tell us that he was a former Acklam Hall schoolboy, keen to see the finished result on its opening day. He explains that this was the room where he’d sat his music O-Level in 1965, before giving the renovations his seal of approval, proclaiming them to be an overwhelming success.

Neil, who cut his teeth in the hospitality industry helping his father behind the bar of the Dog and Gun in Potto, near Yarm, consulted with architects, furniture manufacturers and fabric suppliers to learn the technical details and lexicon needed to turn his scribbled designs into reality. “It was a balance of respecting this grand old building and breathing in some life and some colour that it had not had before.”

His sketches for an extra long Chesterfield-style sofa, a sumptuous purple velvet settee and the imposing black porter chairs were brought into being by North-East based Middleton Design, along with all the other bespoke furniture.

It was important that the chairs were exactly the right height for resting an arm on, as well as sitting against so diners didn’t feel they had to eat and leave but could linger for an enjoyable chat, says Neil. The high-backed chairs were purposefully created to look like stems, to echo the ornate ceiling roses.

As no pendants could be suspended from above, it came down to Neil’s ingenuity and the master craftsmen at Mullan Lighting in Ireland to create something different. Huge glass orbs with wall fixtures reference Middlesbrough’s industrial past through their exposed metal, but give a nod to the future through the LED, energy-efficient bulbs.

The upholstery was done by Aubury Designs from Newcastle, who used swathes of Christian Lacroix lime silk and an abstract floral print to cover chairs, along with checked fabric from Designers Guild and tactile velvets in deep purples to give the scheme cohesion.

The same fresh lime green material hangs over the doorway that separates the two distinct dining areas, to create a flamboyant portiere curtain, which Neil says he painstakingly made sure was “ballroom, not saloon”. The notion of gazing through a door at the theatre of life that lies beyond fascinates him, and it’s illustrated in a huge black and white photo by Royal Ballet dancer Andrej Uspenski of fellow dancer Claire Calvert peeping through the curtain before taking to the stage.

The Brierley restaurant is named after the architect Walter Brierley who designed the alterations to Acklam Hall, in Middlesbrough, in 1912. The restaurant serves home-made dishes from breakfast and lunch to afternoon tea and dinner. In addition, there’s a fine dining option on a Friday and Saturday evening.

The venue offers two dining experiences, The Salon, which will be open all day for breakfasts, lunches and evening meals as well as Sunday lunches, and the more formal Dining Room, which will offer a range of afternoon teas and a la carte fine dining featuring dishes such as smoked rabbit, truffle puree and black pudding pastel; maple-cured pigeon with braised spelt and crispy quinoa and warm chocolate pudding with textures of orange.

North-East chef Adam Anderson has been appointed head chef and is responsible for overseeing The Brierley restaurant and all event catering at the hall, aided by his team of skilled chefs. Adam has worked at a range of high-end restaurants throughout the North-East, including Wynyard Hall, Jesmond Dene House and Newcastle Football Club, and has worked under may feted head chefs, such as Steve Welch, John Connell, Alan O’Kane and David Williams.

Diners in The Salon are treated to walls framed with school paraphernalia, which was uncovered throughout the major building work. Letters, photographs and even a page of scribbled lines from an exercise book with the immortal words `Silence is golden’ are there to educate and amuse.

Upstairs are four unique function suites for weddings and other special events,18 serviced offices and a number of conference and meeting room facilities, with fast broadband throughout.

The total renovations of the historic building, which had been dilapidated and vulnerable to vandalism, cost £4m. More than 20 new jobs have been created and Acklam Hall is very much now a repolished jewel in Middlesbrough’s crown. But it is only part of Neil’s ambition for the site in the suburb of Acklam, just two miles from the town centre and with excellent road links from the A19.

His long-held aspiration has been to create a care village by relocating of two local doctors’ surgeries and creating a community hospital and a specialist unit for elderly patients. There are also aims to introduce a boutique spa and members’ gym in the spacious grounds which overlook the majestic Avenue of Trees, the original path which led up to the hall.

“When I found out Acklam Hall was for sale in 2007, I first spotted it through the Avenue of Trees and after seeing what a state it was in I realised I was going to have to get emotionally and physically involved to restore its grandeur. If we had had to wait another five years, with the state it was in and the threat of vandals there is a strong possibility that it might have been too late. I have saved it just in time.

“Middlesbrough has always been a proud town but I hope to inject a bit of confidence and spread the message about Acklam Hall and what the town can offer to people in North Yorkshire, Durham, Newcastle and further afield. I want people to come here and say ‘Acklam Hall has surprised me’.”

Someone else he’s hoping to impress is the legendary Grey Lady ghost who has been ‘seen’ over the years at the top of the hall’s impressive staircase and near the lift shaft. “If she does exist, I hope she likes what we’ve done and feels happy now,” he says, with a smile.

Acklam Hall, Hall Drive, Acklam, Middlesbrough, TS5 7DY

W: www.acklamhall.co.uk; T: 01642-822000

ACKLAM HALL HISTORY

The hall retains many of the architectural features created when it was built in 1683, as well as those added just over a century ago by one of the finest architects of the early 20th century, Walter Brierley.

William Hustler purchased the country estate close to the River Tees from Sir Matthew Boynton in 1637 for his trading as a cloth merchant and over the following 200 years, the hall was occupied by successive generations of the Hustler family. Thomas Hustler, who was closely involved in the early development of Middlesbrough, carried out significant alterations in 1845.

The hall as it is seen now owes much to the alterations carried out by William Hustler Hustler, who aimed to make it more fitting for an Edwardian family. Fewer than ten years later, the Hustlers left the hall and it was sold to Middlesbrough Corporation in 1928. Acklam Hall began its new life as an educational establishment in 1935, opening as a grammar school for boys. In 1967 Grammar School merged with Kirby Girls' Grammar School to form the co-educational Acklam High School. More recently, Acklam Hall was a sixth form and latterly Middlesbrough College until it moved to a new purpose-built campus in Middlehaven. The property stood empty until Acklam Hall Ltd started work in its restoration in 2014.