The Turf Inn

The Turf Inn is a grandstand hotel originally built for the Carlisle racecourse, now operating as a public house and restaurant. Constructed between 1839 and 1840, it was extended in 1874 by Daniel Birkett. The building is constructed of snecked calciferous sandstone ashlar, with dressings of the same stone, featuring a chamfered plinth, angle pilasters, string courses, and a cornice. It has patterned cast-iron parapet railings and a sloping, graduated local slate roof with a central opening, originally stepped to reflect its grandstand design. Ashlar chimney stacks are at each end. The building comprises three storeys and five bays, with a two-storey, five-bay extension.

The Newark Terrace facade has a central double door and overlight within a pilastered surround topped with a cornice. The three central bays project slightly across all three storeys. Twentieth-century sash windows are set within stone surrounds. A right return features external stone steps with cast-iron railings leading to a stone porch on the first floor. The extension has twentieth-century off-centre doors, set beneath a twentieth-century wooden bracketed porch, and twentieth-century casement windows. Central windows on both floors of the extension have a cross mullion design. A prominent machicolated chimney is also present.

The three-storey block slopes down to two storeys at the rear, with a central twentieth-century door and overlight in a pilastered surround. A left-hand twentieth-century door and overlight appear within stone reveals. Twentieth-century windows in plain reveals are present, with the upper floor windows paired.

The interior has largely been gutted, except for the extension which retains its cast-iron columns supporting open timber roof trusses. Historical documents, including plans for the 1874 extension located in Cumbria County Record Office (Ca/E4/362), detail the building’s development. An early twentieth-century photograph, documented in Perriam (1989), shows the upper floor originally featured large casement windows and a balcony. The racecourse closed in 1904, and the building continued to operate as a pub, incorporating a bowling green on the site of the original paddock. It was purchased from the State Control Board in 1972, lay unoccupied and ruinous until its renovation in 1988.