Did you frequent the pubs in Stanwix? The Crown or the Crown and Thistle? Was it a few in Calva Bar and then on into town? Perhaps you enjoyed a pint in one of the city’s historic pubs, the King’s Head, the Boardroom, the Turf or the Howard? Did you enjoy dancing at the Pagoda, the Twisted Wheel, Fats, the Brickyard, the Front Page, or what about Teapot Tuesdays at Concrete? Tell me I’m not the only one who remembers the fun times at the Guild?
Here’s a selection of our faves:
The Twisted Wheel
Opened in the 1970s as the Pink Panther, later changing its name to the Twisted Wheel, this three-storey venue located on West Walls was the longest running alternative nightclub in Carlisle. The spiritual home of the city’s greebos, goths, metallers, emos and indie kids for generations.
Wednesdays and Saturdays were the nights to go! Regulars proudly showed off their Wheel cards, it opened at 10pm, but you were deeply uncool if you got there before 11!
50p shots of ‘vodka’, £1 bottles of beer, Snake bite and black, the toilets covered in graffiti, girls crying on the stairs, the zerbra painted walls, those were the days!
In 2002 the club got a massive refit and XS opened upstairs in the former Big Softies, the middle floor opened as the Lizard Lounge and the basement got a modern re-fit. Gone were the sticky floors and Margaret serving undercooked chips in the back, replaced with a lot of white and bubbles in tubes! The changes didn’t last long and the club closed down for good in 2008.
The building has since had a refit, been developed into retail units and is currently for sale. Anyone fancy chipping in with me?
The Front Page
The club in the old townhouse on Fisher Street was a Carlisle institution. Opened in 1984 as a jazz club, the venue saw many famous live acts. Sold and re-opened by David Jackson in 1988 it became popular with the student indie crowd who wanted to stay away from the larger clubs on Botchergate. The Page was famed for its Thursday 50p tequila night, everyone has a tale to tell about that!
The lady's toilets were always flooded, the top floor bar was hardly ever open, the basement dance floor with the low ceilings was like a sauna, it was impossible to get a drink at that tiny bar at the back and did I imagine it.... but was there often a real fire in that fireplace?
The club closed down in 2004 before it re-opened as the base for a city LGBT centre. The building is currently closed and empty.
The legendary Front Page club has its own Wikipedia and a book!
Buskers
The most popular nightclub in the city in the 90s and early 2000s, Buskers was where the trendy crowd hung out. You had to be properly dressed up, with strictly no jeans or trainers permitted. Clubbers bopped to the latest in dance and chart hits.
Wednesday nights were the best, the queues were legendary and snaked right round the corner before opening time. The doormen were massive and scary, the toilets upstairs were filthy and the dance floor was like a boxing ring!
Located on Lonsdale street the building is now Pizza Base takeaway.
The Guild
Run by the Students’ Union of Northumbria University which had a campus in the centre of town, the Guild was a short lived but favourite haunt in the late 90s and early 2000s.
Located on Abbey Street the stand-alone building was huge, with a bar downstairs complete with pool tables. The place was never trendy or fashionably decorated but it was a great hangout either day or night. Upstairs was where things really came alive with club nights and regular gigs. Many a local band cut their teeth to a half full room of drunk students.
The Guild is now a cool co-working space, check it out https://www.theguildcoworking.co.uk/
Fats
In the early 2000s Fat Fingers was where the cool kids hung out. Located in a beautiful old building on the corner of Abbey Street behind the Cathedral, the most picturesque part of town.
Run by John Van Lierop, the man responsible for some of the trendiest most popular bars and clubs over the years.
Fat Fingers was a bar and a great daytime and evening student hangout fave. The food was great, the cocktail menu even better! It was a bustling place, always packed out with a great atmosphere, the go to place for pre-drinks and a game of pool before going on to the clubs.
Fat Fingers is sadly no more, but the building has now been turned into a lovely Italian restaurant Amato’s. Interior wise it still looks similar, check it out if you want to reminisce about your Fats days https://www.amatos.co.uk/
The Brickyard
The city’s coolest independent venue. Just a couple of doors up from the Front Page is the old Richmond Hall, originally built as the St Mary’s Parish Rooms, it's been on the Carlisle nightlife scene since New Year’s Eve 2002.
From super sweaty, packed-out rock gigs to quiz nights, student dances, the ever-popular silent discos, this place is a student rite of passage and many a famous musician has graced its stage.
The Brickyard is the only one on our list to still be up and running. Not been to a gig in a while, give this venue some love https://thebrickyardonline.com/
Concrete
Located underneath the pavements of Lowther Street, Concrete was THE student night spot.
Famed for Teapot Tuesdays, if you brought your own teapot you got in free or something, and cocktails were served from them, complete with little straw in the spout, the gimmick really worked though!
The club was multi-room and rabbit warren-like with low ceilings and always packed out. The tunes were bouncy dance and indie hits. If you were a student in Carlisle in the early 2000s and 2010s you will surely have found yourself in here.
Concrete closed down in 2019 after 15 years in business.
Where did you go out? What do you remember about Carlisle’s student nightlife? Join the conversation and add your pics to our Facebook post HERE.