Lost pub · Lowther Street
The Gretna Tavern
- Built
- Post office, 1863
- Gone
- Ceased as a State Management pub in the 1970s; the building has stayed a pub since
- There now
- The Last Zebra. The building has never stopped being a pub, just kept changing its name
- Address
- 8 Lowther Street
- Where exactly
- Placed at the Last Zebra's own coordinates, the current pub on the site
The first state-managed pub in the country. The Central Control Board converted Carlisle's main post office, to the design of the architect John Henry Walton, in a ten-day job, and opened it on 12 July 1916 -- formally, by the Earl of Lonsdale himself. The old counter hall, where public postal business had been transacted, became a bar selling beer and wines, but not spirits; the former sorting office became a 180-seat restaurant, described at the time as airy and light and decorated in a cheerful fashion.
King George V and Queen Mary paid it a royal visit on 22 May 1917, not a year after it opened. The interior was remodelled in 1926, when the front half became a bank, and it closed for refurbishment twice more, in 1939 and again in 1956. The state sold the building on 13 November 1972. This entry used to end by saying it isn't a pub any more, which was wrong: it became the Shambles, then the Post, then Finnigan's, then Churchill's, then the Gilded Lily, and since August 2014 it has been the Last Zebra.
Where the whole experiment started is exactly where you can still get a pint. Carlisle's post office moved on from this building eventually: a grander replacement went up on Warwick Road in 1916, itself now a hotel bar, the Halston. Two former Carlisle GPOs, both now pouring drinks.
Source
Also lost on Lowther Street
Still serving, near where it stood
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0 maway
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20 maway
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30 maway
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40 maway