Lost pub · Caldewgate
The Old Queens Head
- Gone
- Gone from the directories after 1894
- There now
- Not established
- Address
- 50 Church Street
- Where exactly
- On Caldewgate. The exact spot isn't known, so the pin marks the street, not the building.
On Church Street in Caldewgate, at number 50, from before 1809, and known at first simply as the Queens Head. Three successive innkeepers are named between 1804 and 1809: Mrs Armstrong, Miss Ann Johnstone and Mrs Cowen. Caldewgate had at least two Queens Heads, possibly three: the Queens Head Inn nearby, which Historic England's gazetteer places at 6 Church Street, and a Bridge Street Queens Head Inn, with Honor Studholme as victualler in the 1861 census, which may be a further house again. Not the Old Queens Head on St Albans Row, across the city centre.
Thomas Jordan, also a butcher, kept it from at least 1858 to 1884. In May 1868 the licence of the Old Queen's Head, Church Street, passed from Mrs Margaret Rogerson to R. R. Graham, which does not fit Jordan's years here; Graham was the brewer whose own house was the Queens Head at number 6, so that transfer may belong there. In September 1889 Charles Ryley of the Old Queen's Head, Caldewgate, was on the magistrates' black list for permitting drunkenness, and his renewal was adjourned. In September 1890 the licence of the Queen's Head, Church Street, passed from Henry Parish to Joseph Story, and in January 1893 from Joseph Storey to John Hind Wilson.
It is in Kelly's directory of 1894, under John Hind Wilson, and gone by 1897, so the record that ends it in 1880 is too early. The city's minutes for 1918-19 record a licence withdrawn from 'Church St premises', which may be this house trading on unlisted, or the Queens Head Inn at number 6, which the gazetteer has the scheme closing in 1917.
Sources 11
- CARLISLE_PUBS_Ver_3.xls (Mike Tuer's pub database)
- Carlisle Encyclopaedia, "Q" page
- Historic England, Countering the 'deadliest of foes': public houses of the Central Control Board and the State Management Scheme, 1916-73 (Clare Howard, Research Report 89-2018): Appendix C, gazetteer of scheme premises
- Carlisle Patriot, 29 May 1868, p. 5: 'Transfer of public-house licences in Carlisle' (via British Newspaper Archive)
- Carlisle Journal, 2 September 1890, p. 2: Brewster Sessions, transfers (via British Newspaper Archive)
- Post Office Directory of Cumberland (London: Kelly and Co., 1858), Carlisle: commercial list and inns (University of Leicester digital copy)
- Post Office Directory of Durham, with the principal towns of Northumberland, Cumberland and Westmorland (London: Kelly and Co., 1873), Carlisle: street directory and publicans (University of Leicester digital copy)
- Bulmer's History, Topography and Directory of East Cumberland (1884), Carlisle: hotels, inns and taverns, beerhouses, and wine and spirit merchants (University of Leicester digital copy)
- Kelly's Directory of Cumberland (London: Kelly and Co., 1894), Carlisle: street directory and public houses (University of Leicester digital copy)
- North Cumberland Reformer, 2 February 1893, p. 3: licence transfers (via British Newspaper Archive)
- Carlisle Patriot, 6 September 1889, p. 7: 'The black list and renewals' (via British Newspaper Archive)
Open question
A date we can't pin down
Was the licence the city withdrew from 'Church St premises' in 1918-19 this house's, trading on unlisted after 1894, or that of the scheme's Queens Head at number 6?
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.
Also lost on Caldewgate
16 other lost pubs stood within 250 m of here. See them on the map