Life at the Victoria Hotel, by Charles, aged six
Last updated 05:23, Friday, 09 May 2008
In response to a photograph published in The Cumberland News in February 1957, Charles Armstrong of Cliburn wrote to say “how pleased I was to see a picture of the Victoria Hotel in English Street”.
The hotel had come into the Armstrong family, said Charles, because “Mr and Mrs Campbell were tenants previous to my father and mother taking it over and my mother was a niece of theirs”.
This was confirmed by a report in the Carlisle Journal in March 1878 of the marriage “at Fisher Street Presbyterian Church, CJ Armstrong, a merchant of Heads Nook, to Meggie, the third daughter of Thomas Harrison of Preston and niece of Mrs Campbell of the Victoria Hotel, Carlisle”.
Charles Armstrong had early memories of the hotel. As a little boy of six, with his mother, he said: “I can remember watching through a window of the hotel when the black flag was hoisted in Carlisle Gaol (across the road) after the execution of Rudge, Martin and Baker, the Netherby burglars – in fact, Baker’s father stayed at the hotel during the Assize trial.”
He could also remember “the days when the Carlisle troop of the Westmorland and Cumberland Yeomanry used to assemble in front of the hotel before proceeding by road to Lowther Park to do their annual summer training”.
Mr Armstrong ended: “Really it is nice to recall the good old Victorian days.”
What Charles Armstrong did not realise was that his father had bought the Victoria Hotel and enlarged it by adding the Union Hotel in 1881, which adjoined round the corner in Citadel Row.
Plans for knocking through to form one hotel were approved in May of that year.
Some details of the career of Charles James Armstrong appeared in the Journal at various times.
He was born at Kirklinton in 1850, son of Jared Armstrong who farmed 77 acres there.
His first venture was as a grocer at Heads Nook and from there moved to the hotel, becoming a member of the city council.
But CJ Armstrong’s life was almost cut short by a serious accident at Corby Hill in April 1885.
He travelled to Brampton on business in the morning and was expected home in the afternoon.
The Journal said: “Some of his intimate acquaintances, learning that he had not come at the hour he was expected, waited in the hotel a considerable time in the hope that he might reach home all right, but when the hour became late, TB Stewart, ironmonger, Bank Street, engaged a hansom for the purpose of ascertaining something definite as to whether Mr Armstrong had or had not met with an accident.”
Setting off towards Brampton, Mr Stewart met Mr Eckersley of Warwick Bridge “who informed him that Mr Armstrong had been badly hurt and was in a house at Corby Hill.”
Two doctors had already “attended without delay” and “Mr Armstrong’s wounds were dressed and everything was done which his condition rendered necessary,” said the Journal.
His head injuries were “of a serious character,” stated the newspaper, “but the medical gentlemen are sanguine that with care he will pull through”.
As he was not to be moved, Meggie Armstrong, “as soon as possible went to Corby Hill” to be at his side.
This may have prompted a career change because soon afterwards he sold the hotel and was living at Currock House, employed as the manager of Hetherington’s Auction Mart.
Later he took up farming at Fergus Hill near Longtown and then elsewhere, but suffered another accident at Crosby-on-Eden in 1912.
When he died in October 1918, aged 69, CJ Armstrong had been living in retirement on London Road, Carlisle.
The Victoria Hotel was bought in 1898 for £10,200 by Farquhar M Ling, a Newcastle wine and spirit merchant.
He then spent £7,000 in 1904, having the building torn down to make way for a new hotel of the same name.
Under the state takeover of all Carlisle hostelries in 1916, the Victoria Hotel was closed and sold by the Central Control Board in October 1919 to the nurserymen, Messrs Fairbairn.
It changed hands again in 1920 and was converted to offices for Cumberland County Council with shops beneath.
Today the 1905 Victoria Hotel is the temporary Carlisle Police Station until new offices are built for the Cumbria force at Durranhill.
