My experience: Taking a tour inside Harrogate's newest luxury apartments and the newspaper's own past

The costly transformation is finally complete and the results are impressive.

The exterior still looks gloriously familiar but, once inside, I don’t really recognise the place.

It’s an odd experience to return for the first time in 35 years to a building where so much happened and which meant so much to me as a young journalist.

As nostalgic returns go, it’s not unpleasant, just a little bitter sweet.

Like bumping into someone you were once very close to but hadn’t seen for a long, long time.

I’m being given this guided tour of Herald Buildings near the bottom of Montpellier Parade in Harrogate at the kind invitation of Yorkshire-based property investment and heritage specialists Rushbond.

The award-winning company has spent two years and, reportedly, £6.5 million repairing, respecting and restoring a building which first opened its doors as hotel in the 1850s.

There’s a lot more history to Herald Buildings than me, of course, so much of the town’s life has flowed through this three-storey, brick and stone-built Victorian edifice and its gold-painted stone ‘herald’ eagles casting a watchful eye over the Montpellier Quarter and the green grass of the Stray just across the road.

For 100 years or more, Herald Buildings was synonymous with the Harrogate Advertiser in a relationship which had begun when the first edition rolled off the presses in 1836.

Still visible, though faded, is the giant sign on the side wall of Herald Buildings saying “List of Visitors", a remnant of the 19th century heyday of Harrogate’s spa trade when the paper would print a weekly list of wealthy visitors, minor European royals and any society figure who had turned up to ‘take the waters’.

I can see for myself that this is a conversion which has been handled with extreme care and genuine sensitivity.

No more so than in the interior transformation of this iconic building into four apartments, a top floor penthouse and, on the ground floor, three commercial units.

Back in the late 1980s, when I rose through the ranks as a rookie in an era of cigarettes and typewriters to become chief sub-editor, Herald Buildings was a bewildering labyrinth of small rooms and narrow corridors.

The definition of hustle and bustle, there was never a quiet moment for the small army of journalists, photographers, advertising reps and admin staff I was part of, almost 100 people in total.

To tell the truth, it was a bit like the wild west in Herald Buildings in those days, though I don’t believe you had to pass exams or adhere to industry standards in the wild west.

People worked hard but played hard in the days of liquid lunches and late nights as if the 1970s had never ended.

The journalism was always professional but individual behaviour, perhaps, less so.

It was all a great deal of fun even if, back in analogue times, complaints weren’t made via email but in person at the front desk right to your face.

When the entire staff of the Harrogate Advertiser relocated out of Herald Buildings in 1990 for a purpose-built, much bigger and more modern new home at Cardale Park off Otley Road, we were all a bit sad to see part of our old home turned into the Slug & Lettuce bar.

That this didn’t seem an entirely inappropriate outcome for the place at that time is another story for another day.

But the last vestiges of all those years of ribaldry of one form or another have now finally gone.

After the completion of this lavish restoration project by Rushbond, a firm which has also worked its magic on the likes of the Grade I listed Leeds Corn Exchange, my old stomping ground has become a oasis of civilised calm and open plan beauty.

Somewhere nice to get away from the stresses and strains of 21st century life while feeling you’re still right in the heart of the town.

Perfect for a number of different demographics, from professionals to retirees.

The new-look Herald Buildings offers cool-coloured, contemporary living spaces with different views and layouts to create a collection of individual homes.

Each apartment features custom joinery and handcrafted detailing including kitchens, walk in wardrobes, fire surrounds and storage by interior woodwork specialists.

It’s all pretty stunning and the remaining properties are being snapped up fairly quickly, I’m told during my sentimental journey into a past which isn’t there anymore.

Walking from one sophisticated space to another, it strikes me that, one big thing has changed since the days that the Harrogate Advertiser and me and all my former colleagues were housed at Herald Buildings.

The world of luxury, in Harrogate at least, has moved from the margins into the centre.

Lifestyle has jumped into the fast lane while journalism has slipped to somewhere more off the beaten track.

The Harrogate Advertiser remained an independent affair run by successive generations of Breare and Ackrill family members until 1983 when the paper was sold to United Newspapers, who owned the Yorkshire Post and the Daily Express.

The move out of the paper’s original home feels linked to that moment, part of a larger, perhaps, regretful trend or two.

But the Harrogate Advertiser is still here and so is Herald Buildings.

In a way, it’s never looked better and, perhaps, it’s all for the best.

A place where the news was once written is now making the news and that’s good.

There’s always time for new people and new stories.