Office in the sky

I did a short series of blips in the summer – Looking up in Carlisle when there is a blue sky. Today was a lovely day with blue skies, so this is another in the series. I have often wondered about this building on Scotch Street, as it appears much grander than the rest of the street. It turns out that it is a listed building dated from 1889. The date is actually on the building right at the top, but I didn’t notice this until I looked closely at the picture. It was designed by city architect George Dale Oliver, who was also responsible for many other Carlisle buildings.
 
It is built of square blocks of red sandstone with some nice carved details. The thing that I noticed was the lead cupola on the top of the rounded tower structure. A number of buildings in the city have this kind of dome and I wondered whether it was something this architect liked. I like to imagine someone having a little office in that round tower. What a view!
 
The building is newer than the rest of the buildings on this side of the street, most of which are 18th century. It was called Tower Buildings and was three shops with stores and offices above each one. You can just about see on the picture one of several scrolled metal gas lamp brackets that would have originally provided light for the alley to the right of the building. A short while ago this was one Mountain Warehouse store. It is now empty. Nice to see everyone out in the sun after the chaos caused by the snow yesterday.