Whitehaven – The Castle
Location : Whitehaven
Ordnance Survey – NX 977179
There has been a building on this site, known as the Flatt, since at least 1692. The property was bought by Sir John Lowther on 1st October 1675, and has been known as ‘The Castle’ since the beginning of the 18th Century. It remained in Lowther Family hands until 1920. In 1926 it became the Whitehaven Infirmary, which continued until 1964 when the new West Cumberland Hospital was built. The building stayed as a geriatric hospital until closure in the mid 1980’s.
The remaining shell suggests that it was a good house, which is hardly supprising as it was designed by Robert Adam, the most fashionable architect of his period. His drawings of it are in the Soane Museum, in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London.
After a long period remaining empty and decaying, the building has been converted to private accommodation, and is not open to the public.
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