Carlisle Citadel

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as; Nisi Prius Court; Court House; Assize Court; Crown Court

In the civil parish of Carlisle.
In the historic county of Cumberland (Modern Authority of Cumbria, 1974 county of Cumbria).

County Council Offices, formerly known as the Citadel, then Court House and then Court Offices. It was built in 1542 with 1809-12 alterations and additions by Thomas Telford and Sir Robert Smirke. It is made from red sandstone ashlar on chamfered plinth with string courses, machicolated cornice (in part) and battlemented parapets. The tower was formerly the Nisi Prius Court. The Citadel was built in 1541-1542 to designs by Stephen von Haschenperg and consisted of a triangular enclosure with massive round towers situated at the angles. The fortress was mostly demolished to make way for the present towers in 1810 and only the lower levels of the eastern tower are original.

This site has been described as a;
Artillery Fort.
The confidence that this site is a medieval fortification or palace is Certain.
Major remains.

The Ordnance Survey Map Grid Reference is NY40255566

Modern Map from Good for landscape form and features	Modern Map from Good for general location
Air Photo from	1st edition OS Map from

Sources of information, references and further reading

PastScape number; 540490

• Web site links
  • http://www.visitcumbria.com/car/carcitdl.htm
• Books
  • Salter, Mike, 1998, The Castles and Tower Houses of Cumbria (Malvern) p36
    Perriam, Denis and Robinson, John, 1998, The Medieval Fortified Buildings of Cumbria (CWAAS)
    Pettifer, A., 1995, English Castles, A guide by counties (Woodbridge) p38
    King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol1
    Hugill, Robert, 1977, Castles and Peles of Cumberland and Westmorland (Newcastle; Frank Graham) p62-3
    Pevsner, Nikolaus, 1967, Buildings of England: Cumberland and Westmorland (Harmondsworth) p101
    Curwen, J.F., 1913, Castles and Fortified Towers of Cumberland, Westmorland and Lancashire North of the Sands (Kendal) p115-7
    Jefferson, 1838, History of Carlisle (Carlisle) p277-9
• Journal Articles
  • Hughes, J., 1970, ‘The building of the Courts, Carlisle, 1807-1822' Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society 70 p205-20
    Oliver, 1916, Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society Vol16 p91-6
• Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)
  • Speed, John, 1611-12, The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britain [http://faculty.oxy.edu/horowitz/home/johnspeed/Cities7.htm]
    William Camden, 1607, Britannia [http://www.philological.bham.ac.uk/cambrit/cumbeng.html#cumb21]