Maison Le Gall, Devonshire Street, Carlisle

A wet start to the day. We headed for Carlisle and I spotted this shop front thinking 'I don't remember seeing that before'. After taking a few blips, in between the passing traffic, we noticed the cafe behind us called Le Gall and thought they might have some history about the area.

The site can be traced to the 13th Century with this property dating back to 1830's. At one time a hairdressing and beauty salon was based here with the name of Le Gall. Originally the land belonged to the Duke of Devonshire, hence the name of the street, where gradually these properties were built. The young chap in the cafe mentioned that the grandchildren of Le Gall had called in recently to find out more about the family.

We like the architecture of the four storey building. The ground level had a ornamental gate, unfortunately this was open and not seen in the picture. The floor above the balcony with the intricate work below and above on the pillars. And the lovely little shaped window at the top.