Lost pub · Willowholme

The William James Inn

about 1834 to about 1911

Built: Started as a beerhouse
Gone: Gone from the directories, around 1911
There now: Demolished by 1972
Address: Jane Street, Willowholme (also recorded as Bridge Street)
Where exactly: Placed from the Ordnance Survey grid reference, NY3943856067, in Historic England's gazetteer of the scheme's premises. The building has since been demolished. The Ordnance Survey's 25-inch map surveyed in 1865 marks an 'Inn' at the corner of Jane Street and Bridge Lane, which fits the Board's 1919 description of the building, on Bridge Lane and Jane Street.

Also known locally as the 'Billy James', named for William James, the radical MP returned for Carlisle in 1820. It began as a beerhouse in the Willowholme area around 1834, on Bridge Lane and Jane Street, and became a full pub, a Carlisle New Brewery house by the end. T. Johnston signed the innkeepers' memorial of February 1867 for the William James, and in May 1868 the licence of the 'W. James, M.P. Inn' passed from Thomas Johnston to H. Stephenson, lately of the Jovial Sailor at Caldcotes. In September 1886 its licence passed from Ed. Callaghan to Ann Callaghan.

In September 1890 the licence passed from Bernard McAlindon to Joseph Graham, who was fined 40s in May 1891 for permitting drunkenness there, though the licence was not endorsed.

At the brewster sessions of September 1891 the Chief Constable objected to its renewal, the tenant having been in the house only a week or ten days. The owners' solicitor explained that the old tenant, who was leaving and was not friendly to the owner, would not help to renew the licence, so a man had been put in temporarily to keep it; the bench gave them a fortnight to find a new tenant. In September 1898 the Chief Constable objected that a former public bakehouse had been added as a kitchen without the magistrates' consent; he thought it a great improvement, and the licence was renewed on condition the room wasn't used for drinking.

It drops out of the trade directories around 1910 or 1911; one record gives 1912. Historic England's gazetteer has the scheme acquiring it in 1916 and closing it straight away, which would put it in business some years after it left the directories. The Board did own it, and kept it until after the war. On 30 April 1919 the Central Control Board put it up for auction at the Victoria Hotel, through the auctioneer Fred Telford, among fourteen Carlisle properties it no longer needed: 'a very excellent shop and dwelling-house, formerly the William James Inn', together with eight self-contained cottages, numbers 1 to 15 Jane Street, 'a splendid block of stone-built property'. The building was gone by the Ordnance Survey map of 1972.

Photograph

Old Ordnance Survey street plan of Caldewgate north of Bridge Street, with a red circle around a building labelled Inn at the corner of Jane Street and Bridge Lane, and a red label reading William James — The William James, marked 'Inn' at the corner of Jane Street and Bridge Lane on the Ordnance Survey 25-inch map surveyed in 1865 and published in 1874 National Library of Scotland, CC BY 4.0

Sources 12

Carlisle Encyclopaedia, "W-Z" page
CARLISLE_PUBS_Ver_3.xls (Mike Tuer's pub database)
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
The Cumberland News, 19 April 1919, p. 10: Fred Telford's advertisement of the Central Control Board's auction of fourteen Carlisle properties, Victoria Hotel, 30 April 1919 (via newspapers.com)
Carlisle Patriot, 22 February 1867, p. 7: 'Carlisle Town Council: the Public House Closing Act', with the innkeepers' memorial (via British Newspaper Archive)
Carlisle Patriot, 10 September 1886, p. 3: 'Carlisle Brewster Sessions' (via British Newspaper Archive)
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)
Carlisle Journal, 8 September 1891, p. 2: 'Carlisle brewster sessions: licences withdrawn', the Chief Constable's annual report (via British Newspaper Archive)
Ordnance Survey 25-inch map, Cumberland XXIII.3, surveyed 1865, published 1874, via the National Library of Scotland
Carlisle Express and Examiner, 23 May 1891, p. 8: 'Yesterday's police news' (via British Newspaper Archive)
East Cumberland News, 1 October 1898, p. 6: 'Two licences refused' (via British Newspaper Archive)