Eric Robson's Carlisle...

I'm proposing a pub crawl to introduce you to one of the odder footnotes of Carlisle's history. The Border City, renowned for its pivotal position in Anglo Scottish history was also the place that saved Britain from prohibition, bootlegging and the Al Capone style criminality that sprang from it. How so? Well, in 1916 all the pubs in Carlisle and district were effectively nationalised. The reason was that workers from what was then called The National Factory at Gretna and Eastriggs were getting so drunk in the city that they weren't producing enough artillery shells to supply the British army's guns in France. The State Management Experiment had begun. All sorts of rules were introduced. Signs went up announcing NO TREATING. You weren't allowed to buy someone else a drink. NO HEATERS AND COOLERS. Beer and spirits had to be sold in separate pubs. You weren't allowed to stand and drink in a bar and when you went outside you would probably see a pub inspector lurking in the shadows to check that the landlord wasn't allowing his customers to get drunk. The Experiment was rather forgotten about when the war ended, managed as it was from an obscure bit of the Home Office. Until, in the 1920s, the temperance movement began its insistent progress across Europe. But every time it tried to have prohibition in one form or another introduced in Britain the Government said ‘No, let's just wait for the results of The Experiment'. They were still waiting in 1971 when the Conservative Government abolished it.
But over the years many positive things came out of State Management, mainly because of the work of an architect called Harry Redfern. Pub crawl starts here to give you an idea of some of the buildings worth visiting. The Redfern pub near St. Anns, despite having bracken on its sign, was named in the architect's memory. Redfern was given the job of creating model public houses. Neither his budget nor his imagination were limited. He built a Spanish-Moorish pub in Warwick Road, the Jacobean Coach and Horses at Kingstown and the Georgian Crown at Stanwix. The Magpie at Botcherby was influenced by Charles Rennie Mackintosh and the Earl Grey in Botchergate was pure art deco. Brewers from all over Britain came to see Harry Redfern's work and to copy his ideas - stainless steel kitchens, ladies toilets, eating areas, bowling greens. Quite simply he revolutionised the English pub. Raise a glass to him before you forget why you're on this pub crawl.