Hospitality · Cartmel, Cumbria
A coaching inn in Cartmel, open since about 1555. A bespoke website and a quieter modern brand, for the rooms, the kitchen and the village around the priory.
1555
A coaching inn, still taking guests
Grade II
Listed, beside Cartmel Priory
Bespoke
Drawn for this building
Direct
Rooms and tables, booked on the site
The brief
The Cavendish Arms is a Grade II listed coaching inn on Cavendish Street, beside the gatehouse of Cartmel Priory. Travellers have been stopping here since about 1555. The site had to hold that, and still feel current. Named rooms. A kitchen that runs from breakfast to the Sunday roast. Weddings. The people who supply and serve. A guide to the village, the racecourse and the Lakes. The mark, the type, the colour and every page were drawn for this building. Nothing came from a template.
The rooms
The Gatehouse looks onto the priory arches. The Snug looks onto the village. Priory View, the Old Grocer's, the Courtyard Balcony, the loft rooms with a kitchenette. Dog-friendly rooms are marked as such. Breakfast is in the rate. The page reads as a set of rooms, not a grid of identical doubles, and the booking stays with the inn.
The kitchen
Residents' breakfast, lunch, dinner, and a Sunday roast that runs through the afternoon. The menu names the farms, the bay, the game and the brewery in the village. The bar is in the dining room. The terrace faces the priory and stays open through the year. Booking a table sits on the same page as the food.
The village
Race day, with the times filled in. A food weekend that includes L'Enclume, and does not pretend the inn is the only kitchen in Cartmel. A walk to Hampsfell. Holker, the priory at sunset, the sticky toffee pudding that sells out on a Sunday. It is a local's list, not a directory.
The house
Receptions for a smaller party inside, and a marquee when more people are invited. The couple's room is included. Alongside that, a page for the landlord, the kitchen, the cheesemaker, the brewer and the village historian. The inn is introduced as a set of people, which is how Cartmel actually works.
Outcome
One site now does the job of the inn. A room or a table can be booked from it. The menu, a wedding and a day in Cartmel are all there. The first thing you see is still the street at night, and the line the place has earned: a long legacy, and a modern flavour.
design
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