No 1st Class waiting room at Carlisle Station - but a huge choice of beer

Hahaha! Well, Nigel, a little too late for my sojourn on the platform in Carlisle, where the train unexpectedly terminated. I imagine the pub would have done great business that day. Perhaps that is a somewhat common train occurrence and someone saw a business opportunity. LOL!

I'm in, Nigel! That's a fantastic idea. I was at the Carlisle station in 2024, but was so late that I was racing through the station and just barely caught my train, so I would not have had time for a beer. However, I'm happy to make up for it in the future, lol!

It was originally Queen Victoria's private waiting room (on her way to Scotland), you can still see both ends of the passageway for her personal entrance to the Station Hotel opposite.

It has been a pub before, a few years ago, an enterprise which failed after quite a short time, so we will have to see how well this one does. At least that one did very good breakfast rolls.

There has been a huge social media storm about the fact that the pub has no toilets- instead you have to walk what is apparently 37 seconds to the station ones on Platform 4/6 (which are now staying open 3 hours later than previously to 11pm).
Also about the fact that they have made a big deal of the craft ales at £7 a pint (very expensive locally) but forgot to mention that other ales start at £4.65 a pint.

The intention is to make the pub a destination in it's own right- not just for rail users. It certainly deserves to succeed.

They are also converting the old flower shop into a permanent home for the Pie Demand shop- gourmet pies made in the station arches. Or, so they say- last week it looked more like the old information office that was being converted. Pie Demand are my guilty secret and treat, from their current pop-up tent.

Thanks for sharing this great news! I wonder how it will compare to what is in my opinion the best station pub, the one in York (can't remember the name). I would also give honourable mention to the small pub on one of the southbound platforms at Doncaster station. And the one in Sheffield in what I believe was the old waiting room.

Edited to add: I forgot to mention my favourite London station pub- The Parcel Yard at Kings Cross. And for best tube station pub, Tap on the Line at Kew Gardens.

oh do tell about the Tap on the LIne. Never been in

Another good pub on a station is The Platform Bar- the former waiting room on the westbound platform at Hexham Station. There too, you use the station toilets so they are open for much longer hours than they were previously.
There still is an indoor waiting room by the way- it's just been made smaller for modern day traffic.

Also Stalybridge (on the TPE route), just to the east of Manchester- the Stalybridge Station Buffet Bar. It always has real ales on tap, and is a rare survivor of a traditional station buffet bar.

Tap on the Line is great- it's a Fuller's pub in the former booking office at Kew Gardens station. You're basically right on the eastbound platform and can watch the District and Mildmay lines go by. We were just there again recently after attending the annual Kew orchid festival show.

Oh, my! An orchid festival! More notes……

I'd hoped to get to the Orchid Festival but there were so few member tickets we didn't want to deal with the crowds.

I've just seen that for the last week of the binge there are tickets left. We may run up to London and see.

How was it?

For those who aren't already familiar with the orchid festival- Kew puts this on every year from about mid February to mid March. There's always a country theme (and the orchids will be ones native to that country). This year was China.

The last few years we've been attending we've been going on one of the Friday "lates" they put on during the festival. The Princess of Wales Conservatory stays open late (note: just the building where the orchids are, the rest of the gardens are shut) and they have food, drinks, and cultural activities (including live music and performance) from the theme country.

One thing we have noticed, after going to the festival for almost a decade now, is that there do seem to be fewer orchids and more "other" stuff- like little sculptures using plant material, art/info about the country, etc. It's still fun, and there are still a lot of orchids, but I get the sense they are worried the orchids won't be enough for people.

That was a very long way to get to my answer to Nigel's question, which was that we enjoyed it this year, tho I would recommend going to one of the "lates" so you get the extras (and can then have dinner after at Tap on the Line!).