23, Fisher Street

23 Fisher Street is a former Quaker Meeting House that has been converted into shops with an office above. The building is dated on a relocated keystone to 1776, with extensions added in 1864 by James Stewart of Carlisle. There have been further internal alterations in the 1960s and 1980s. The exterior features red brickwork on a chamfered plinth, with all dressings made of calciferous sandstone. The ground floor is rusticated ashlar, and there is a sill band along with a solid brick and stone parapet that has a central stone panel. The hipped roof is covered with Welsh slate and there are no chimneys.

The building is two storeys high and has five bays. The 1864 facade was constructed over the former garden, with the original 1776 building now partly integrated into the structure behind. The central three bays project and are quoined, while the flanking bays are lower. There are three ground-floor round-headed arches with false keystones, which are glazed as shop windows, with the right arch being open. The upper floor has similar smaller round-arched windows, with paired windows in the flanking sections and single windows in the side bays. The open arch provides access to the former original doorway, which is now a through-passageway; the dated keystone from 1776 has been moved to the rear of this passage.

Inside, the building retains its original exposed timber roof structure. Historically, the original Quaker Meeting House on this site collapsed in 1775, and it was taken down in 1776. Its replacement was nearly completed by January 1777, though progress was delayed due to a lack of subscriptions. Original drawings for both the 1776 building and the 1864 alterations can be found in the Cumbria County Record Office. The building was sold by the Friends in 1962 when a new Meeting House was constructed. The Kinmont Meeting Room, which operated as a café, retained some of the original panelling until 1988.