Some buildings carry so much history that any change has to earn its place. Sculthorpe Mill is one of them — standing on the River Wensum since 1757, decades before “farm to table” was ever a marketing line. So when sisters Siobhan and Caitriona Peyton (the names behind Atlantic Bar and Grill, Mash micro-brewery, and Peyton and Byrne) took on the Mill, they weren’t looking for a kitchen that simply worked. They wanted commercial kitchen design that matched the ambition of the setting.
Bringing in the Right Chef
To lead that ambition, they appointed Elliot Ketley as executive chef — fresh from Soho House Group and The Square — tasked with running an indulgent restaurant menu, a classic bar menu, and food for the Mill’s new Garden Kitchen. All from a genuinely small kitchen footprint.
That’s where the real challenge sat: a historic building with limited space, and a chef with a big, three-pronged menu to deliver from it.
Designing a Commercial Kitchen Around a Small Footprint
Our job was to make that footprint earn its keep. Working within the Mill’s existing extraction system, we converted the old gas cookline to a high-efficiency all-electric range, built around Lincat induction, chargrill, solid top and deep fat fryer — all part of the commercial catering equipment specified for the project.
The result gives Chef Ketley precise, fast control across all three menus — without the ventilation overhaul a full rebuild would have demanded. Working with what the building already had meant a smarter fit, not a compromised one.
Built on Trusted Partners
For the rest of the kitchen, we leaned on the suppliers we come back to project after project: Williams refrigeration to keep service moving under pressure, Rational for combi cooking, and Altro for hygienic finishes tough enough for a working countryside pub kitchen.
The Result
Sculthorpe Mill is a good example of what we do best — taking a beautiful old building with real constraints and fitting a modern professional kitchen inside it, without losing the character that makes the place worth visiting in the first place.
Suppliers featured:
- Lincat LTD
- Williams Refrigeration
- RATIONAL AG
- Altro Limited — Safety Floors, Walls
- Sculthorpe Mill
Read the full project write-up
If you have a project in mind for your next hospitality space or in need of a refurb then drop our team a message to discuss – [email protected]