Lost pub · St Cuthbert's Street
The White Quay
- Gone
- Closing date not recorded
- There now
- Not established
There were two White Quays, and this was the city one. The Brewery History Society's list of houses belonging to Iredale's High Brewery names a White Quay on St Cuthbert's Street alongside the better-known one out at Stoneraise. Iredale's was one of the three Carlisle breweries the State Management Scheme shut in 1916, so both were in its estate when the state arrived. A quey is a heifer, and the word is northern farming dialect, which is why it is said white why rather than white key.
It makes obvious sense at Stoneraise, out in dairy country. On a city-centre street it is odder, and it may simply be that a brewery gave two of its houses the same sign. There is a possible connection worth flagging. This archive already records a White Ox somewhere in this part of town: Co-Curate describes 61 St Nicholas Street, on the junction with Woodroufe Terrace, as a former White Ox Inn, while a lost pubs index puts a White Ox at 60 Durdar Road.
St Cuthbert's Street and St Nicholas Street run close together south of the centre, and Ox and Quay are easy to confuse in a handwritten ledger. One of these may be a misreading of another. Nothing available settles it.
Know anything about this one?
What's above is everything on file, and it isn't much. If you drank in it, or your family did, or you've a photograph of it, that's more than the records hold.