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Lost pub · St Cuthbert's Lane

The City Arms

1822 to 1855

Built
Trading as the City Arms by 1822
Gone
Became the Shakespeare Tavern by 1855
There now
Not established
Address
St Cuthbert's Lane (Castle Street in 1837)
Where exactly
On St Cuthbert's Lane. The exact spot isn't known, so the pin marks the street, not the building.

Carlisle's first City Arms, a market-day house in the lanes, and not the Gaol Tap on English Street, which took up the name in the 1850s. In October 1822 the assignees of two bankrupt Carlisle merchants, Joseph and Francis Stodart, sold their property by auction 'at Mrs. Nelson's, the City Arms'. By 1828 it was John Martin's, and it was the kind of house country business came to on a Saturday: a Wigton auctioneer could be met there on Saturdays in 1828, and in 1834 the manager of the new woollen machinery at Denton Mill attended 'at Mr. Martin's, City Arms, every Saturday'. In November 1829 the Martins lost a daughter, Elizabeth, aged two years and ten months.

The house moved, or the papers are confused. Parson and White's directory of 1829 lists 'City Arms, English Street, John Martin', with 'a Car, from Wigton to the City Arms, English street, every Sat. mng.'; St Cuthbert's Lane opened off English Street. In April 1837 the ground floor of 'the City Arms, Castle Street', in Martin's occupation, was to let from Whitsuntide: a sitting room and bar in front, a parlour and spacious kitchen behind, and 'an extensive range of excellent Cellars'. By 1840 the City Arms was in St Cuthbert's Lane, where John Martin died that February, aged 56, 'much respected by his friends, and a large circle of acquaintances'.

His widow kept it on, and added a hiring business: in 1842 Mrs Martin, 'relict of the late John Martin', thanked her customers and advertised 'a neat Pheaton for one, or a Pair of Horses. City Arms, St. Cuthbert's Lane.' The house was offered to let in July 1843, 'that Commodious PUBLIC HOUSE ... known by the Sign of the City Arms', applications to Mr Thurnam the bookseller, but she was still there in 1845. Entries for the Cumberland steeplechase over Broadfield were taken at the City Arms in May 1845 and again in March 1846.

In June 1845 the lane saw a chase. A fishmonger's son from the Fish Market followed a man named Hetherington, who had walked off with two slices of salmon, 'up St. Cuthbert's Lane, and overtook him near Mrs. Martin's, the City Arms'. Charged with the theft, Hetherington said 'hut, ho'd thy tongue, I'se only going to have a broil', and invited his pursuer into Ben Holmes's public house. The fishmonger's son would not go in.

Mannix and Whellan's directory of 1847 still lists it under John Martin, either a son of the same name or a name carried over from an earlier list, and lists a separate house in the lane, the Shakespeare Tavern, under George Foster at number 27. Archibald Kirkpatrick of the City Arms Inn had died by February 1852, when his creditors' agent called in his debts. By June 1855 the house had a new name and a familiar landlord: 'G. Forster's, Shakspeare Tavern, late City Arms, St. Cuthbert's Lane', offering good accommodation for travellers and 'Choice Wines, Ales, and Porters'. George Forster had apparently moved his Shakespeare into the old City Arms.

Which building it was is not settled. A Shakespeare Tavern traded in the lane until the State Management Scheme, and the records file it under number 5, the house that had been the Robert Burns, with the Shakespeare name from 1837 and the Lowther Arms from 1858. If the Shakespeare name moved into the City Arms in the 1850s, the later Shakespeare was the City Arms building, and the house it left may be the one that became a Lowther Arms. The Lowther Arms at number 12 is said to have been a Shakespeare too. Mrs Nelson's City Arms of 1822 may have been the Castle Street house.

Sources 16

Open question

An unsolved mystery

Where in St Cuthbert's Lane was the City Arms, and which house carried the Shakespeare name after George Forster took it there in the 1850s? In 1847 the City Arms and the Shakespeare, at number 27, were two houses; the records give the Shakespeare to number 5, the old Robert Burns. And was Mrs Nelson's City Arms of 1822 the Castle Street house of 1837?

If you know the answer, or where it might be found (an old photograph, a family story, a document), tell us and it goes into the story above.

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