101 is usually a number best avoided, thanks to George Orwell, Paul Merton and a Newcastle killer, but the column fared well at table 101 at the Devonport Hotel

GEORGE Orwell wrote 1984 in 1949. Room 101, where a prisoner was subjected to his own worst nightmares, is said to have been named after a conference room at Broadcasting House in London where Orwell sat through interminable BBC meetings during the war. The Football Association have similar chambers today.

"You asked me once what was in Room 101, " said torturer O'Brien in the novel 1984. "I told you that you knew the answer already. Everyone knows it. The thing that is in Room 101 is the worst thing in the world."

For the wretched Winston Smith, it was rats.

Perhaps in self-parody, the BBC has since 1994 had a radio and television series called Room 101, in which celebrities are invited to discuss their pet hates.

In a Big Brother series last year - Big Brother and Room 101 may hereabouts by synonymous - a contestant was required to enter a room 101 to complete gruesome tasks, like sorting different breeds of maggot.

Then there was the very real murder of John Welch, still unsolved, in Room 101 of the Swallow Hotel in Newcastle.

It was November 1980. Mr Welch, a Ladbrokes executive and regular visitor to Newcastle was found bludgeoned to death on his bedroom floor. Nothing had been taken, no weapon ever found. Half a cup of tea and a half-eaten sandwich lay next to his body. Two men charged ten years later with his murder were released after four months because of lack of evidence.

We mention all this because at the Devonport Hotel in Middleton-one-Row we were seated last Wednesday evening at table 101. It wasn't that there were 100 others, or that it seemed at all unpleasant, but 101 it undoubtedly was.

To report that it was a night of 101 damnations would probably make a very nice headline, but would in no way be accurate.

Middleton-one-Row is above the Tees, east of Darlington. The airport is nearby. The Boss noted that the bar had been much spruced up since our last visit.

We'd wanted a simple, unfussy, informal pub meal and so it proved. There were three real ales, two friendly barmaids, quite a lot of customers for a Wednesday evening.

(One of the barmaids had something written prominently on her T-shirt. I couldn't read it and The Boss declined to. "I don't go around reading ladies' chests, " she said, sniffily. ) She began with queen scallops and mash, pleasant but a bit gooey, followed by fish and chunky chips which, well battered, she thought very good.

A large bowl of enjoyably home made tomato soup was just £2.50, a succulently home made burger came with bacon, cheese, more chunky chips and plenty of salad for just £6.50.

The Devonport, with 16 en suite bedrooms, is now owned by Julia Ellwood - 19 years in various catering jobs with Darlington council - and Chris Mills, her partner. "Table 101" is all to do with the all-singing, all-dancing, state-of-theart till, said Chris. "Anything beginning with one is the lounge bar, with two it's the restaurant and with three it's the rooms."

It was all very good value in a pleasant atmosphere, not the stuff of nightmares at all.

A spokesman for Northumbria Police tells the Eating Owt column that unsolved murder cases are never closed and regularly reviewed. "Any new information is acted upon. It would be the case with Room101."