North East hospitality group The Inn Collection Group has opened its latest property after converting a former police station in North Yorkshire into a 30-bedroom pub with rooms.
The company has overseen a multimillion-pound refurbishment of the former Northallerton Police Station, which it bought in 2020. An 18-month redevelopment project included the remodelling of the building’s former custody suite, complete with five cells, into bedrooms.
The building’s front entrance and main staircase have been retained, while internal spaces of the Grade II listed building have been repurposed into a bar and dining area with 200 covers. The creation of The Custody Suite offers a self-contained ‘snug’ for private dining or smaller groups.
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Inn Collection Group managing director Sean Donkin said: “This has been a particularly exciting project for us. We are delighted with the transformation and to have expanded our Yorkshire customer base with the opening of this superb new site.
“We have pulled out all the stops to do justice to the building and its fascinating past while giving the building a brand new purpose as an inn. Northallerton is a cracking market town with bags of character and The Northallerton Inn is at the heart of it. We are very happy to be trading and being part of the community here, with a new venue that local people and visitors can enjoy, providing year-round food, drink and accommodation services.”
The Georgian building had been a police station for 30 years and was previously a council office and public library. It had been empty since North Yorkshire Police services were moved to new headquarters at Alverton Court in 2017.
Its conversion to a hotel will create 50 full-time jobs, with the Northallerton Inn joining a number of other Inn Collection properties in North Yorkshire, including The King’s Head Inn at Newton-under-Roseberry, The Black Swan at Helmsley and The St George in Harrogate. Elsewhere, the group’s 31-site portfolio includes venues in Northumberland, the Lake District, County Durham, North Tyneside, Wearside, Lancashire and North Wales.
Jules Gibson, general manager of The Northallerton Inn, said: “The inn is everything we planned it to be – a lovely, laid-back place where people can pop in for a drink or good food in a home-from-home environment.
“We have an outstanding team of staff who are as excited as I am to be open for business and being part of the fabric in Northallerton.”
The Inn was officially opened by John Proud, retired inspector of Northallerton Police Station, who was in charge there between 1995 and 2003.
