Opened in 1996, Bistro 21 was the third of Terry Laybourne’s restaurants, following the Michelin-starred 21 Queen Street in Newcastle and Café 21 in Ponteland.

The restaurant, on the northern edge of Durham, is in the servants’ wing of a small but elegant 18th century country villa, formerly a farmhouse. Vandalised and partially destroyed by fire, it took three years to restore the buildings. Care was taken to preserve both the original fabric - the rough-cast walls, terracotta floor tiles, lime-washed exterior - and the character.

Original rooms have been imaginatively converted: the restaurant is in the former kitchen-cum-laundry, the bar in the coal bunker, private dining rooms in the larders and gardener’s cottage.