Beehive

History

The Brunton Park matchday pub, directly opposite the football and rugby grounds on the A69. Screens everywhere, several channels at once when it's needed, home fans only for some fixtures, and coaches welcome. It is a State Management pub, on the list of the 49 within the city boundary still trading, but it was never one of the scheme's own buildings.

The Beehive appears in Carlisle trade directories from 1873, more than forty years before the state took anything over, as a beerhouse: a licence that covered beer and not spirits. The Carlisle Patriot advertised the Bee-Hive Inn to let in December 1887, and by then it was the Littles' place, for a good thirty years. James Little died there in June 1894, aged 85, and was buried at Stapleton; Isabella Little died at the same address in 1909, aged 86. Between the two, the 1901 census lists Margaret Little, 44 and born at Stapleton, as beerhouse keeper.

It belonged to Iredale's High Brewery, on the Brewery History Society's list of its houses, and Iredale's was one of the three Carlisle breweries the scheme shut in 1916, and Historic England's gazetteer of the scheme's premises has it acquired and converted in August 1916 with the rest of Iredale's estate. The pub did not have to be bought on its own; it came with the brewery, along with seventeen others in this directory and its archive, from the Stag at Low Crosby to both White Quays. That is why the State Management Story has an address for it and nothing else. There is no opening date to record and no architect to name, because the house was bought, not built. Harry Redfern had no hand in it.

The scheme gave it new sanitary arrangements in 1957 and put it up for sale with the rest in 1972. The Evening News and Star ran an illustrated feature on the pub in October 1975, the earliest known picture of the place, and reported a revamp in July 1998.

Chris and Mike Wheatley took it on in 1999, and since then it has been worked over more than once, usually because of water. The Great Carlisle Flood of January 2005 went through it, and by the end of that July the Cumberland News had it set to reopen with a new extension, the same month the rugby club a hundred and fifty yards up the road got back into a rebuilt clubhouse. Storm Desmond put the pub under a second time in December 2015 and it was refitted again, in the week Brunton Park went under across the road. It was open again by the spring of 2016. Warwick Road sits on the low ground.

The Evening News and Star marked the Wheatleys' twenty-five years behind the bar in March 2024. Greene King closed the pub on 24 August 2026 for a six-figure refurbishment, and it has since reopened with new decor, lighting and furniture, digital dartboards, a screen in the beer garden and a raised function space. Greene King IPA plus two rotating locals from the likes of Bowness Bay, Carlisle Brewing and Great Corby, Cask Marque accredited. Food all day with vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free options, Thursday quiz, rock-and-roll bingo, and live music on the last Saturday of the month.