His dad designed everything from traffic lights to post boxes, now Corin Mellor is keeping his legacy alive

And now, 50 years later, the closeness with work remains. A single door separates Mellor’s family home from offices, steps down to a shop and café and then a stone’s throw away across a narrow path to the factory which doubles up as a visitor centre at weekends when tourists can have a fully guided tour of the premises and receive an extremely detailed overview of the manufacturing process.

“Whist it’s very handy to have everything in such close proximity, there can be disadvantages,” Mellor explains. “For example, we can just be trying to enjoy some relaxing family time and we suddenly look up and see tourists walking across our garden.”

Mellor trained as a product designer at Kingston University and started his career working for the London architects YRM before joining his father as a designer-craftsman at his company. Since taking over the reins as Creative Director in 2006, he’s built on his father’s legacy by designing new ranges of cutlery and kitchen knives as well as developing and designing David Mellor products in completely new areas, like fine bone china tableware, glassware, and wooden kitchen accessories.

Beyond the products, he’s drawn on his architectural background to create the company’s shops, designing the interior of the David Mellor Design Museum and Café at its current site in Hathersage, and the interior of the Marylebone shop, which opened in 2017. As well as steering and expanding the repertoire of the family business, Mellor has carried out several significant public and private design commissions including: Public seating at the Lowry Gallery, Salford Quays and the Millennium Gallery and Winter Gardens, Sheffield; Ecclesiastical silver for Sheffield cathedral; sterling silver collection for a Middle Eastern Royal Family; sculptural bench for the Duke of Devonshire at Chatsworth; 20-metre stainless steel and glass link bridge for Sheffield Hallam University and products for The Hepworth Gallery, Wakefield.

With everything that his father achieved, it’s not surprising that Mellor is extremely proud to reminisce and continue in his father’s footsteps – even 14 years after David passed away.

“My father was unusual in this country in combining the activities of hands-on craftsman and designer with those of design entrepreneur. He operated as designer, manufacturer, and retailer, seeing the designer's function as controlling a product through all stages from concept to customer. He felt it his mission to improve design standards over a broad spectrum, directly affecting very many people's lives.

“His concern with design in its broadest sense led to many important government commissions in the 1960s. He redesigned the national traffic light system – a design which is still in use. He developed a controversial new square post box, and designed minimalist stainless steel cutlery produced in huge quantities for government canteens and NHS hospitals.”

One thing that hasn’t changed over the years is the company’s outstanding commitment to quality and a clear understanding of what they want – and indeed don’t want – to manufacture. This was highlighted in 1992 when David was approached with a commission for 10 Downing Street. He became concerned about the overly ornate approach the Silver Trust wanted to pursue and immediately withdrew from the commission.

And today his son says: “We’re extremely choosy about our customers. We don’t want our cutlery and homeware ranges just to end up anywhere, but we want to work with people who clearly recognise and appreciate quality, craftsmanship, and heritage. We’ve had loyal customers for 50 years, and these are now moving to the next generation.”

Indeed, a quick browse at the company’s customer list leaves you in no doubt as to where the company is pitching itself with prestigious names such as Claridge’s, The Royal Opera House, Rolls Royce Motor Cars, Waldorf Astoria Beverley Hills and The Savoy highlighted. At a more local level, David Mellor Design also supplies the Yorkshire Sculpture Park and Chatsworth House.

And the extensive list of awards – including the 1977 Design Council Award for Chinese Ivory Cutlery, 1988 Chartered Society of Designers Award, 1994 European Commission Design Prize, 2008 Blueprint Design Award for the Stainless Steel Candelabra, 2021 Homes & Gardens Award for Stainless Steel Tableware and 2022 Livingetc Style Awards Best Collection for Stainless Steel Tableware – complements the prestigious customer base.

A passion for remarkable design is also witnessed by the company’s ‘Round Building’ cutlery factory.

Built on the site of the former village gasworks in Hathersage, this unique, small scale English factory was purpose-designed by internationally-acclaimed Sir Michael Hopkins and has been hailed as a ‘minor masterpiece’ of modern architecture.

Mellor has spent a lot of time abroad, gathering examples of best practice to use in the business. “On my travels, I saw a lot of places where people had created a whole ‘visitor experience.’ It’s not just a case of giving someone a shop they can come to and then leave, we want to keep them here and create a day for them to remember

“This is why, apart from the shop which is indeed a major focus of our site, we’ve developed a café where they can enjoy a wide range of refreshments, a museum telling the story of my father’s designs over the years, and opportunities for factory tours which are proving very popular indeed.”

So, what does the future hold for the business? “My youngest son Morris, who’s just 11, is already showing signs of interest. Like I was as a child, he’s extremely inquisitive, wondering how things are designed and work, and always fiddling around with things,” says Mellor. “Hector, 18, depending on his exam results, wants to study architecture, so we’ll have to see where that takes him.

“I just want to carry on doing what we’ve done well for so many years – designing and manufacturing quality goods for high-end customers.

“This is the 70th anniversary of my father’s first cutlery range and so we’re planning to launch a new range later in the year to mark this milestone.

“We constantly need to respond to consumers’ changing habits as well – the ongoing rise in opportunities to buy online; and a desire not just for knives and forks but a full range of quality kitchenware and tableware.”

www.davidmellordesign.co.uk