Self-guided walking trail around Penrith
Penrith museum, Thacka Beck and Town Hall
The Explore Penrith trail helps you discover the centre of Penrith.
Penrith museum to Town Hall
- The Penrith
Museum and Tourist Information Centre are
located in a 1670’s school building named after William Robinson, a local man who
later became a successful London merchant. The former schoolyard was converted to
an open seating area by the Penrith Civic Society to commemorate Queen Elizabeth
II’s Silver Jubilee.
Please note that Activity Packs of things to do in the Coronation Garden (Stage 2 of the walk) are available from the Tourist Information Centre.
Penrith Museum - William Robinson School 
Penrith Museum - William Robinson School dated 1670 - Thacka Beck (the stream behind the Tourist Information
Centre) was used by Bishop Strickland in 1382 to provide the town’s first water
supply. The water is diverted from the River Petteril, 4 miles north of Penrith,
and the amount of water was controlled as being that which would flow through the
eye of a millstone, which is why we have a millstone in the schoolyard today as
a reminder.
Follow the arrows on the map into Corney Place.
Penrith Tourist Information Centre seating and sign 
Thacka Beck - Ahead is the Town Hall built in 1905 on the site of two
Adam style houses dating from 1791- one of which was the residence of
William Wordsworth’s cousin. The architect was Penrith UDC surveyor Mr
Knewstubb. Some pieces of the original houses were built into the new Town Hall.
Eden District Council Town Hall 
Eden District Council Town Hall - About 100 metres to the right of the Town Hall is Corney House built by Miles Corney as a show-off house in the 1720s. At the time this was on the edge of the town.
Portland Place
- At the foot of Portland Place opposite the Town
Hall is the Masonic Hall which was built
in 1882 as Christ Church Parish Rooms. Portland Place was created in 1875 – 87 when
the Duke of Portland was Lord of the Manor. The trees on Portland Place were planted
in 1938.
Proceed up Portland Place.
Masonic Hall - The gap site was kept for the town’s horse-drawn fire engine; the fire alarm was a buzzer in the Town Hall.
- Portland House was a girls’ school run by Miss Rodham, a Yorkshire woman who died in the early 1900s, thereupon it closed.