Carlisle is a city and the largest settlement in Cumbria in the far northwest of England. It was originally a Roman settlement, built to serve the forts on Hadrian's Wall and Carlisle Castle was built in 1092. It became an important mill town during the Industrial Revolution.

Housing greatly developed in the end of the 19th century, particularly to the west of the city walls. In the 1920s and 1930s the first council houses were built in the city, many of them in the Raffles suburb to the west of the city, which has been greatly redeveloped in the early 2000s.

The city proper has period survivals from many architectural eras. In the north of Carlisle are the suburbs of Kingstown, Lowry Hill and Moorville, and to their south are Stanwix, Edentown, Etterby, St Ann's Hill and Belah which were added to Carlisle in 1912.

The eastern side of the city centre developed in the 19th century into a more affluent area along the main A69 road. It links with the former village of Botcherby to which a large council estate was added in the mid-20th century and later still Durranhill Housing Estate.

South of the city centre is the Botchergate/St Nicholas area of late Victorian terraced housing similar to that found in Denton Holme and Caldewgate. The Botchergate East area until recently had older slum dwellings.

New build developments include the semi-detached houses in Latrigg Road, where Help to Buy has been available to use for purchase; the detached houses in Lowry Street, Blackwell and the bungalows and apartments in Crindledyke Lane among others.

Cumbria is a county in north-west England and came into existence after 1974. Apart from the city of Carlisle, the only city in the county and its county town, the only other major urban area is Barrow-in-Furness.

Cumbria consists of six districts; Allerdale, Barrow-in-Furness, Carlisle, Copeland, Eden and South Lakeland. It is comparatively sparsely populated. It contains the Lake District National Park, an outstanding area of natural beauty and much of the terrain is mountainous. It includes the tallest peak in England - Scafell Pike.

Historic sites include Carlisle Castle, Furness Abbey and Hadrian's Wall. Adjacent counties include Lancashire, North Yorkshire, Durham and Northumberland and there are two Scottish council areas - Dumfries & Galloway and Scottish Borders to the north.

The University of Cumbria is based in Carlisle and the city is the transport hub of the county: its rail station offers direct services to London and other major conurbations. The M6 is the only motorway in the county and terminates just over the border, in Scotland (Dumfries and Galloway County), at Gretna junction.

Gretna Green is famous for 'runaway marriages' - English couples who are over 16 but under 18 are still known to go there to get married when they can't get parental consent (they can do so under Scottish law).

The sport of pole vaulting was invented in Cumbria in 1879 - it developed as a technique to cross waterways - and Botchergate in Carlisle is where the first mainland pillar (post) box was sited in mainland Britain, in 1853.