City Centre, Carlisle

Smiley's

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Late nightclub at the bottom of Botchergate, in the old Co-operative headquarters. Doesn't open till nine or ten.

Today: See opening hours
Address: 70 Botchergate, Carlisle CA1 1QS

Directions

Also known as Mood, Mint, The Bomb Shelter, Players Grill & Sports Bar, Poprooms

History

The building started life as the Carlisle Co-operative headquarters and was converted into a very large nightclub: Mood, which ran from the late nineties to 2008 and at its height pulled thousands of people a week.

What came after is a run of names rather than a history, and the sources tell it two ways. CAMRA record it renamed Mint in 2015, then completely refurbished in 2017 and reopened as Players Grill & Sports Bar. Another account has Mint opening in June 2018 with a rooftop terrace over Collier Lane, a mojito bar and stiltwalkers, and the place being called the Bomb Shelter the year after. Those two accounts do not fit together.

The gambling register at least fixes some posts. A gaming machine notification ran at 70 Botchergate from October 2016 until it was surrendered in January 2020, under the name Poprooms by the end of it. The next one starts in June 2021, which is about when Smiley's appears, and a third was served in November 2025 by MKWR Ltd. Six names on one address inside thirty years, which is Botchergate all over.

Smiley's is a late nightclub rather than a pub that stays open: DJ-led events across Afrobeats, reggae, dancehall, amapiano, bass, rave, club classics and retro house, with different promoters rather than one fixed sound. Its licence is one of the latest in the city, permitted to trade until half four in the morning, seven days a week, and events run to that time in practice, with last entry around half three. The licence transferred to a new operator in June 2026, though the name stayed the same.