The County Bar the Cumbrian Hotel (Part)

The County Bar, part of The Cumbrian Hotel, is located on Botchergate in Carlisle. It was originally known as The County Hotel and was built between 1866 and 1868 by architects Cory and Ferguson. The building features painted brick with rusticated pilastered quoins, string courses, and a modillioned brick eaves cornice. It has a slate roof, which is not visible from the street, and includes gabled dormers along with original painted brick end and ridge chimney stacks.

The structure is three storeys high with an attic and has three bays. The central entrance consists of 20th-century doors and a fanlight, framed by paired colonnette under a glazed canopy. On either side, there are 20th-century shop windows set within original shop openings, topped with signboards that have ball finials. Above these, there is an arcade of small paired casements in deep brick recesses, featuring modillions, with a pair of windows above the entrance supported by pilasters that extend from the doorway. The paired sash windows above have flattened and rounded heads, with patterned aprons on the first floor and a central colonnette on the second floor, all set in brick reveals. A carved stone cross between the arcade windows indicates the site of a former freelidge stone that marked the city boundary, which was originally at pavement level.

The interior of the building has been extensively altered, with plans for these changes available at the Cumbria County Record Office, dated 22 February 1866. The County Bar is an integral part of the ballroom of The Cumbrian Hotel, as this building extends over it.