Johnsons of Whixley Elevates Seaham Hall Hotel in £8.5M Expansion

Accredited Supplier, Johnsons of Whixley, has provided over five thousand plants to a five-star luxury spa hotel in County Durham, as part of the venue’s £8.5million expansion plans.

The Yorkshire-based horticultural business was chosen to supply a range of plants and trees to Seaham Hall Hotel’s grounds, including its bungalow lodges, 44,000sq ft spa area and hotel terrace, as a project to develop a series of new luxury suites for the hotel also gets underway.

Johnsons of Whixley, which worked with Richard Porter of Garden Vision Ltd, supplied the plants for the project, providing a diverse range of plants and trees, ensuring a considered approach in keeping with the property’s Georgian heritage. The supply included Allium hollandicum plants, Allium nigrum, Betula jacquemontii trees, Geranium ‘Johnson’s Blue’, Lavandula ‘Hidcote’Magnolia ‘Susan’ and Nepeta faassenii. Garden Vision completed the designs for the outside spa area, terrace and lodges as well as provided the soft and hard landscaping for the projects.

Founded over 100 years ago, Johnsons is a three-generation family business that has an excellent reputation for supplying the hotel trade. Previous projects include Grantley Hall in Ripon, The Torridon in Scotland and The Springs Resort & Golf Club in Oxfordshire.

Seaham Hall Hotel, which was built in 1791 in Seaham, 25 miles northeast of Durham, was converted into a luxury hotel in 2012, with its owners committed to ensuring the future of the property as the finest five-star hotel in the region. From a WWI military hospital to a secret whisky bottling facility in the Prohibition era, the Hall has a rich history which is kept alive through the character and charm of the modern-day hotel.

Today the hotel boasts 21 guest suites, an on-site spa and two restaurant concepts for guests to enjoy and has scooped a string of prestigious awards, the most recent being gold at the VisitEngland Awards 2022, the 2022 AA Inspectors’ Choice Hotel Awards and Good Hotel Guide Editor’s Choice Spa Awards in 2021. The hotel has also been named in The Times and The Sunday Times' Best Places to Stay list 2023.

Johnsons of Whixley marketing manager, Eleanor Richardson, said: “We are thrilled to work with the Seaham Hall Hotel team as their ambitious development plans get underway, in collaboration with our customer Richard from Garden Vision Durham, who delivered the design, hard and soft landscaping of the project.

“This was a really exciting project that required incredible attention to detail to ensure that the plants and trees enhanced the property’s heritage and features, while maintaining the luxury coastal feel that guests enjoy, being so close to the beautiful Durham Heritage Coastline.”

Richard Porter Director at Garden Vision Ltd said:

“Garden Vision have been proud to complete the design, landscaping & planting for Seaham Hall, a client that we have a great working relationship with. Throughout the design process, I was able to call on the knowledge from Johnson’s, when needed, to ensure the planting design and implementation delivered the quality required for this historic venue."

Ross Grieve, Managing Director at Seaham Hall Hotel, said:

“The grounds around the hotel are as stunning as the hotel itself, and it’s something which our guests really enjoy – especially being out in the coastal air. Therefore it was important for us to work alongside a business that not only understands this but has built its reputation landscaping in County Durham and the surrounding counties.”