Plans for a new Premier Inn have been submitted for a former Carlisle hotel site.
Whitbread plc, the parent company of the Premier Inn hotel chain, agreed terms to acquire the site of the Central Plaza from the council in June.
The five-storey hotel would have 104 bedrooms in total and feature a restaurant and bar.
It would also include staff accommodation.
The planning application said: “To increase the activity of the site further large areas of glazing have been introduced so this staircase acts a beacon in the day and night as a way find point for guests.
“The entrance lobby has large, glazed entrance doors and a window facing onto Victoria Viaduct, maximising the active frontage at street level.
“The rear of the upper ground floor level has five hotel bedrooms overlooking Backhouses Walk and service areas fronting onto West Walls.”
The Central Plaza Hotel was designed by local architect Daniel Birkett and built in 1881.
It initially opened as the Grand Central Hotel, it was later known as the Central Hotel and subsequently the Central Plaza Hotel.
The building was given Grade II-listed status in 1994. The hotel closed in 2003, and planning permission for conversion to residential and leisure use was granted in 2004, but never followed through.
The site had effectively been ownerless for several years and its ownership reverted to the Crown Estate in 2011.
It fell into disrepair and the then Carlisle City Council demolished and cleared the hotel during 2020 after it became structurally unsafe.
The western boundary of the site forms part of a Medieval wall, which links Carlisle Castle to the cathedral.
The planning application said: “The lower section of this wall is recognised as the oldest element, dating from the 12th century, with evidence of 19th century underpinning.
“To facilitate the reinstatement of a pavement along West Walls, limited removal of the upper sections of the wall will be required.
“To ensure the protection and long-term stability of the listed structure, a membrane will be applied to the existing wall, with a new concrete retaining wall cast in front.
“The proposed hotel wall will be offset from the listed wall by this concrete section, allowing the intervention to be fully reversible; in future, the concrete could be removed and the historic wall revealed once again.”
