Last updated at 12:22, Friday, 13 January 2012

Cockermouth's Grade II-listed Globe Hotel, empty since the 2009 floods, is up for sale.

The Globe Hotel

The Main Street hotel has gone on the market with Edwin Thompson for £595,000.

Groups who used to meet in the three-storey building say they hope it will be turned back into a hotel and something for the community, not turned into flats.

Roy McCaslin, president and treasurer for the Lions, said: “We used to hold our monthly meetings there and it was a great venue.

“I hope that the Globe stays as a hotel and is not turned into something such as flats because it has a lot of history and is a very important place to many people.”

Pub chain JD Wetherspoon said last June that it was interested in taking over the building, which was built in the mid-1700s.

But last month it confirmed that it had dropped plans to develop the site because it did not have an outdoor area.

The estate agent’s website describes the hotel as being “in shell condition” and says it is suitable for retail, commercial or leisure use.

It said the hotel had been “largely cleared” and was ready for refurbishment. It includes public house rooms, kitchen facilities and function rooms.

Upstairs is guest accommodation, two large function rooms and a three-bedroom manager’s flat.

Building owner Peter Brown successfully applied to Allerdale council last May to convert a rear annex into 10 apartments.

The Globe has been a centre for Cockermouth social life and was home to the town’s Rotary, Inner Wheel, Lions and Round Table clubs.

Poet and novelist Robert Louis Stevenson and scientist John Dalton stayed there in the late 1700s.

Margaret Henderson, former president of the Inner Wheel, said: “The Inner Wheel was formed in the Globe in the 1920s and we held our meetings, lunches and functions there all that time.

“It was very sad when the floods hit. We have lots of fond memories of the Globe and it is sorely missed.”

Richard Cooke, vice chairman of the Round Table, said: “It was particularly sad that it didn’t reopen. It was nice to have a regular place to meet.”

Owner Mr Brown was unavailable for comment.

First published at 11:29, Friday, 13 January 2012
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk