The railings of a listed Carlisle church are due to be reinstated to protect it from anti-social behaviour.

In recent years the facade of the building which houses Lowther Street Congregational Church Carlisle and Carlisle City Church has been disrespected and it was decided new railings and gates would be the most appropriate way to avoid the issues in the future.

Secretary Olwyn Luckley said: “In recent years we’ve had a problem with people using the steps up to a porticoed entrance which is quite elegant. 

"But it wasn’t elegant regularly on Sunday mornings when it had been used by people who had been drinking, people who had been eating and in some cases defecating.

“It was really being shown a lot of disrespect. It wasn’t pleasant for members of the church to go to church on a Sunday morning and see all of that. We can’t afford to do that to the important buildings in Carlisle.”

The building had iron railings and gates until 1942 when the Ministry of Work required iron for the war effort. Railings in Carlisle and across the country disappeared as they were given as donations.

Since then they have done without but problems of anti-social behaviour, which are worse during weekends when Lowther Street becomes a hub of activity, have forced members of the church to think of ways of protecting it. 

Debris had to be removed and the area cleaned down prior to Sunday worship.

Mrs Luckley said the grade II* listed church is one of the most distinguished and oldest buildings in the city.

Perhaps one of its most significant historical links is that US president Woodrow Wilson visited the church where his grandfather Thomas Woodrow was once the reverend. A wall mounted plaque commemorates his visit in 1918 ahead of his visit to Versailles.

The church was built in 1843, only a few decades after the city’s walls were removed.

Lowther Street was once of the first streets to develop. Many of today’s businesses in the street began life as town houses and there was the Athenaeum, the home of the Mechanics Institute and Library until 1851.