History

The Crown and Mitre Hotel was built in 1905 on the site of the original Crown and Mitre coffee house which had a long and colorful history dating back to before the Jacobite Rebellion. The landlord of the day supported Bonnie Prince Charlie and he gave shelter to the rebels once they entered the city following the Jacobite siege of 1745. By the end of the 18th century the Crown & Mitre Coffee House had become the main coaching inn of the city, a stopping place for both mail and stage coaches on their way to London, Glasgow and Edinburgh.

The Crown and Mitre Inn had a large assembly hall which once stood on the site of the hotels ballroom, the assembly hall was the centre of many local activities. A romantic episode of the time was the whirlwind courtship of Miss Margaret Carpenter and Sir Walter Scott, the novelist, they stayed at the Crown and Mitre Inn the night before they were married in the city’s Cathedral on Christmas Eve.

The original Inn was totally demolished in 1902 to make way for the existing Hotel which took 3 years to build. The original design for the hotel seems to have mainly comprised of a blend of aesthetic influences contemporary with the time in which it was constructed. No expense was spared during the hotels construction, all the best materials available were used throughout the hotel and when the hotel first opened it was rated as being one of the finest hotels in the north of England.

Many famous and influential people have visited the Crown and Mitre Hotel, one of the most noteworthy occasions was in 1918 during the state visit to Britain of Woodrow Wilson President of the United States, President Wilson’s mother was born in Carlisle and he called his journey to the city a “pilgrimage of the heart”.