Coco Mill

History

Opened

Late 2018

Before that

The Social, closed 1 October 2018

Before that again

Robertsons Cafe Bar

Before it was a bar, 47-49 Lowther Street belonged to a bakery whose name was a Carlisle one. W. C. Robertson of Carlisle was incorporated in 1940 to carry on business as bakers and confectioners, renamed Robertsons (Bakers) Limited in 1973, and ended up part of Carr's Milling Industries, the Carlisle flour and biscuit firm. When Carr's marked its 150th anniversary in 1981, it was Robertsons who baked the cake.

Robertsons Cafe Bar was the first attempt to make a bar of the old bakery: directory listings put it at this address, and SM Leisure spent £750,000 on it in 2003 before going into administration the next year. So the room has been serving the public over a counter for a good while longer than the current fit-out suggests.

The Social Bar and Café followed, opened on 12 December 2008 by Aquaclear Leisure, its first venture in Cumbria: a coffee lounge downstairs, big screens, pool and a free jukebox upstairs, open from nine in the morning to two at night, and pitched by its manager at professionals and students as an alternative to Botchergate. 'It's not going to be a boozer.' CAMRA date the Social's closure precisely, to 1 October 2018, and still hold Social Bar & Cafe as the previous name.

Coco Mill opened in late 2018 as the newest addition to John Van Lierop's bars, the paper calling him Carlisle's pub and club king at the time. The name is styling rather than a mill that stood here: it is a contemporary fit-out in a converted shop, with no listing and no State Management link.

It calls itself a brewhouse and kitchen, doing brunch through to late, sharing plates and Sunday lunches, cocktails, and three handpumps. CAMRA record Cumbrian Ales' Loweswater Gold as the regular beer, which makes this more of a real ale stop than the fit-out suggests.