Bees Knees

History

Opened 9 October 2026

Was

BrewDog Carlisle, January 2019 to March 2026

Bought for

£205,000

Due to open

Friday 9 October 2026, 6pm

When the new owners got the keys to the old BrewDog on Botchergate in August 2026, they found it fully fitted, in Phil James's words as though everyone had been kicked out and left everything, with beer still in the fridge. There was also £120 in the safe. Rather than keep it they said they would donate it to a local charity and double it to £240, and asked people to nominate causes on their Facebook page: a cheaper piece of publicity than £240 usually buys, and a decent way to arrive in a city you have not traded in before.

BrewDog opened here in January 2019 and closed in March 2026, one of thirty-eight bars the brewer shut across the UK. The site sold in August 2026 for £205,000 to James and John Ashley, two Lancashire publicans trading as the AJP Pub Group, who run about sixteen venues across the North West including Oldham, Warrington and Blackpool. James called it the deal of the century. Around £200,000 went into the refit, to bring it in line with their Workington bar.

Their Cumbrian expansion started at Maryport, then Workington, where they took the former Chasers Bar on Washington Street in 2023 and later turned the old Padua's nightclub into Paddy's Irish Bar. They have converted Harrington's Lifeboat Inn into holiday lets and are refitting Cockermouth's former Conservative Club as another Bees Knees. Carlisle is the chain's first in a city rather than a town.

It opened on Friday 9 October 2026, from 6pm, with live entertainment from 8pm. Its own page bills it as live sports, cocktails and great times. On 18 September 2026 it announced that its opening-weekend line-up was sorted, the following week it was advertising for a venue manager, bar staff and resident DJs, and the owners were also looking for local bands to play there.

It is another turn of the Botchergate wheel. Ularoo went from Walkabout to rebrand to shut inside a year a few doors along, and reopened as Headquarters, while the Cumberland Inn has stood on the same street since 1930.