23, Fisher Street

NY4056SW 671-1/8/164

CARLISLE FISHER STREET (East side) No.23

GV II

Quaker Meeting House, now shops with office above. Dated on relocated keystone 1776; extensions dated on facade keystone 1864 by James Stewart of Carlisle; further 1960s and 1980s internal alterations. Red brickwork on chamfered plinth (this and all dressings of calciferous sandstone), rusticated ashlar ground floor, sill band, solid brick and stone parapet with central stone panel. Hipped Welsh slate roof; no chimneys. 2 storeys, 5 bays; this 1864 facade is built over the former garden so that the original 1776 building, now partly knocked-through, is behind. Central 3 bays project and are quoined; flanking bays are lower. 3 ground-floor round-headed arches with false keystones, glazed as shop windows, the right arch being open. Similar smaller round-arched windows on upper floor, the flanking windows are paired, with single windows to side bays. The open arch gives access to former original quoined-surround doorway, now a through-passageway (the dated keystone 1776 removed to the rear of the passage). INTERIOR has original exposed timber roof structure. HISTORY: The original Quaker Meeting House on this site collapsed in 1775 (records of Carlisle Monthly Meetings, 20 October 1775) and it had to be taken down in 1776. Its replacement was near completion in January 1777, lack of subscriptions holding up the progress. Original drawings for the 1776 building (not as built) and for the 1864 alterations are in Cumbria County Record Office, Ca/E4/873. Sold by the Friends in 1962 when new Meeting House was built. As the Kinmont Meeting Room (cafe), this retained some of the original panelling until 1988. See DM Butler (1978). (Butler, David M: Quaker Meeting Houses of the Lake Counties: 1978-: P.1-7; Carlisle Monthly Meetings: 20 October 1775).

Listing NGR: NY4003256015