City Centre, Carlisle

Alien

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Nightclub in Englishgate Plaza, in the unit that was Truth until the council revoked its licence in 2024.

Today: See opening hours
Address: Unit 7, Englishgate Plaza, Botchergate, Carlisle CA1 1RP

Directions

Also known as Truth

History

Was: Truth, 2022 to January 2024
Licensed as Alien: Application October 2024
New holder: May 2026

Alien is the latest name on a unit in Englishgate Plaza that has been licensed since 2011, with a gaming machine notice running back to 2013 and a long run of holders in between. It sits in the same block as Ballers, Deja Vu, Rouge, the Unit and Headquarters, one of the most heavily licensed corners of the city.

Its predecessor here was Truth, and Truth ended badly. It opened in 2022. In September that year police found under-age customers at eighteenth birthday parties on consecutive nights, and a sixteen-year-old who had been drinking there was found drunk. The company behind it was struck off on 16 January 2024 and the council's licensing sub-committee revoked the licence the next day. A month later the same sub-committee unanimously refused to transfer the licence to a new company with the same two directors, the chair saying the police had a clear concern about the same people running it under a different name.

So Alien started clean. Its licence is a fresh one, applied for in October 2024, and it passed to a new holder in May 2026; a local DJ's post, which carries no date, points to a change of owners.

It runs as a nightclub, with club nights promoted through the usual ticketing sites; Antix Audio and Orthodox put a night on here on Saturday 11 October 2025. The Food Standards Agency registers it as a pub, bar and nightclub, and inspected it on 3 March 2026, rating it five: a clean sheet for a unit that needed one.