FOR more than six years, Glenn and Sue Matthews gazed out of their pub in the heart of London's East End at a constant stream of buses belching out diesel, with towering blocks of flats in the background.

Today they enjoy a very different view - across wild moorland hills dotted with flocks of sheep, pheasants and even the rare black grouse.

The Matthews have no hesitation in describing their move from The Brewery Tap pub, in London's Tower Hamlets, to the Langdon Beck Hotel, in Upper Teesdale, as a huge culture shock.

Mr Matthews, an avid West Ham football supporter, stumbled across the wild beauty of the North Pennines while taking a geology course through the Open University.

He encouraged his wife to travel north with him, and for two years they went on several hiking holidays, staying at pubs and hotels in the North Pennines.

Mrs Matthews said: "It's the stillness and beauty of the place that is so different."

The Matthews have also started making friends with locals, taking on three part-time staff to help them run the hotel, which they open at 5pm on weekdays and all day at weekends.

Mrs Matthews said: "Everyone has been so friendly. I could not believe it when Norman the postman joined us for a cup of coffee and then asked us if there was anything we wanted picking up at the shops down the dale. That would never have happened down south."