Lost pub · Annetwell Street
The Wrestlers Arms Inn
- Opened
- about 1834
- Gone
- Beerhouse closed, around 1910-12
- There now
- Unknown
- Address
- 31 Annetwell Street (27 from 1901)
- Where exactly
- On Annetwell Street. The exact spot isn't known, so the pin marks the street, not the building.
On Annetwell Street from 1834, first as the Fox and Grapes and from 1869 as the Wrestlers Arms. A different pub from the Fox and Grapes on Irish Damside, which stood elsewhere in the city. It was 31 Annetwell Street in the directories of 1884 to 1897 and 27 from 1901, very probably the same house renumbered.
Its licence passed from John Wright to Michael Creigan in June 1880, from Thomas Davidson to Thomas Johnston in March 1884, from Tom Johnston to George Robinson in September 1886, and from Robinson to William Graham in September 1887. By 1890 it went by the fuller name of the Cumberland Wrestlers' Arms, a different house from the Cumberland Wrestlers on Currock Street, and James Williams kept it.
On a Sunday afternoon in March 1890 two plain-clothes constables watched Williams come out from behind the house and meet two men, who went up the lane behind it. The police followed them in by the back door, heard talking behind a bolted door, and through the keyhole saw two men drinking two pints of beer. When it opened, one was 'standing helplessly drunk' and the other was being sick. Mrs Williams said, 'They got no drink here,' and her husband said, 'D—— it, they were on my premises.' (Laughter.) His solicitor reminded the bench that the police's duty was to prevent crime, not let it happen under their eyes, to cheers in court. Williams was fined 40s and costs.
His licence was renewed with a warning that September. In September 1893 the Wrestlers' Arms beerhouse passed from George Astley, who went to the Caledonian, to Thomas Tiffen.
It was advertised for sale as 'an old established inn' in 1895. Michael Kenny, a confectioner as well, kept it from 1897 to 1901, and J. Robson in 1906 and 1910. A reader recalling the city's inns of about 1908, in a letter to the News and Star in 1958, still had it on his circuit, with a wrestling pun: 'in the Wrestlers you dive at Annetwell Street'. A 1912 newspaper item reported the beerhouse closed; another record gives 1910.
Sources 14
- Carlisle Encyclopaedia, "W-Z" page
- CARLISLE_PUBS_Ver_3.xls (Mike Tuer's pub database)
- Carlisle Patriot, 10 September 1886, p. 3: 'Carlisle Brewster Sessions' (via British Newspaper Archive)
- North Cumberland Reformer, 25 September 1890, p. 2: 'The Adjourned Brewster Sessions' (via British Newspaper Archive)
- North Cumberland Reformer, 7 September 1893, p. 2: brewster sessions transfers (via British Newspaper Archive)
- Carlisle Express and Examiner, 8 March 1884, p. 8, and 22 March 1884, p. 8: 'Transfer of licences' (via British Newspaper Archive)
- 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., 1897), Carlisle: street directory and public houses (University of Leicester digital copy)
- Bulmer's History, Topography and Directory of Cumberland (1901), Carlisle: trades and alphabetical directory (University of Leicester digital copy)
- Kelly's Directory of Cumberland (London: Kelly and Co., 1910), Carlisle: street directory and public houses (University of Leicester digital copy)
- North Cumberland Reformer, 4 September 1890, p. 8: the Spinners' Arms, Cummersdale, to Joseph Pape, formerly of the Wrestler's Arms (via British Newspaper Archive)
- News and Star, 9 August 1958, p. 5: S. Keiling's letter, 'Carlisle inns of 50 years ago recalled' (via newspapers.com)
- Carlisle Express and Examiner, 12 June 1880, p. 8, and Carlisle Patriot, 9 September 1887, p. 9: licence transfers (via British Newspaper Archive)
- Carlisle Patriot, 18 April 1890, p. 3, and Carlisle Journal, 15 April 1890, p. 3: James Williams, Annetwell Street (via British Newspaper Archive)
Also lost on Annetwell Street
27 other lost pubs stood within 250 m of here. See them on the map