Lewis Clarke, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Eat and drink · Northleach
The Old Prison Café, Northleach
A daytime café run by Relish in Northleach's Georgian house of correction on the Fosse Way, with free parking and free entry to the cells and courtroom.
Dog-friendly · Family-friendly
Breakfast or lunch in a 1790s prison, then a look at the cells and the courtroom for free. It is the one place in Northleach with easy parking, and dogs are welcome in the café and the yard.
- Good: Free parking, including disabled spaces and room for coaches
- Good: Dogs welcome in the café and the yard, on a lead
- Good: Cells and courtroom free to see
- Good: Open every day, 9am to 4pm
- Worth knowing: No dogs in the cells or the courtroom
- Worth knowing: Ring before a winter visit: an older leaflet said it closed in January and February
About
The Old Prison Café is in the old house of correction on the Fosse Way at the western edge of Northleach, near the crossroads with the A40. The prison was built in 1792; the café is run by Relish, a Cirencester catering company, in partnership with the Friends of the Cotswolds, the charity that has owned the building since 2013. You can see the cells and the courtroom of the Old Prison for free. The cell wings came down in 1936 to 1937; the cells that survive are in the female cell block of 1844, three on each floor off a stone-flagged corridor, and the courtroom keeps its 19th-century bench and dock, according to the Historic England list entry.
The menu is brunch and lunch. Prison eggs are two poached eggs on rye sourdough (£9.50 in 2026), the prison trays are built up with bacon, Cumberland sausage, halloumi or garlicky mushrooms, and brioche buns are filled with bacon, sausage or hash browns, with gluten-free and vegan choices marked. There are buttermilk pancakes, sourdough toast and coffee.
It opens every day from 9am to 4pm. The yard has outdoor tables, and the Lloyd-Baker collection of farm wagons and implements is kept on the site. Dogs on a lead are welcome in the café and the yard, but not in the cells or the courtroom, and children are welcome if supervised; there is no play area and no ball games. Level paths serve the café and gardens, wheelchair users reach the cells and courtroom from the garden, and there is an accessible toilet with baby change. The café takes table bookings by phone or email.
Parking is free and plentiful, which matters in a town with no council car park. The Monarch's Way passes the door, and the walk to Hampnett and the Saltway starts in the Market Place, about 700 metres away by road.
Opening hours and season
| Monday | 09:00 to 16:00 |
|---|---|
| Tuesday | 09:00 to 16:00 |
| Wednesday | 09:00 to 16:00 |
| Thursday | 09:00 to 16:00 |
| Friday | 09:00 to 16:00 |
| Saturday | 09:00 to 16:00 |
| Sunday | 09:00 to 16:00 |
Open daily, 9am to 4pm, by its own site, which mentions no winter closure. A 2022 Cotswolds National Landscape leaflet said it closed in January and February; ring before a winter visit.
The details
- Food
- Café food
- Serving
- Breakfast · Brunch · Lunch
- Dietary
- Vegan dishes · Gluten-free dishes
- Booking a table
- Walk-ins only
- Features
- Café · Garden or terrace · Parking
- History
- In the house of correction of 1792
- Parking
- Free car park on site, with disabled parking at the entrance and space for coaches.
- Without a car
- Pulhams buses stop in the Market Place, about 700 metres away: the 855 (Bourton to Cirencester) about hourly and the X52 (Cheltenham to Oxford) about every two hours, Monday to Saturday.
Photos
From the café menu 
The café 
The old courtroom 
The Old Prison
Location
Accessibility
- Parking within 50 metres
- Accessible toilet
Places to stay nearby
-
Wheatsheaf Inn
Inn · Northleach
A seventeenth-century coaching inn on West End, Northleach, with 14 bedrooms, a garden and food all day, friendly to families and dogs.
Dog-friendly · Family-friendly · Walker-friendly
Verified Nov 2026
-
Far Peak Camping
Camping · Northleach
A seasonal campsite with tent and hook-up pitches, tipis, bell tents, shepherd huts and glamping domes beside the Far Peak climbing centre, about a mile from Northleach.
Dog-friendly · Family-friendly
Verified Oct 2026
-
The Inn at Fossebridge
Pubs · Chedworth
An inn, a hostelry since the early seventeenth century by its own account, where the Fosse Way crosses the River Coln, between Cirencester and Northleach, with 4 acres of riverside gardens, log fires and seven rooms.
Dog-friendly · Walker-friendly
Verified Nov 2026
Nearby walks, places and things to do
- Wheatsheaf Inn 0.4 km away
- Lynwood & Co, Northleach 0.5 km away
- Far Peak Camping 2.2 km away
- Far Peak Climbing, near Northleach 2.2 km away
Sights nearby
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The Old Prison, Northleach
Sight · Historic building · Northleach
The Old Prison at Northleach is the house of correction William Blackburn designed in 1791 for Sir George Onesiphorus Paul's reform of Gloucestershire's prisons. A cell block and the Victorian courtroom survive, free to see, with a café. Grade II*.
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St Peter and St Paul, Northleach
Sight · Church · Northleach
St Peter and St Paul is Northleach's wool church, rebuilt in the fifteenth century with money from the town's woolmen: a tall tower, a vaulted two-storey porch and one of England's finest collections of brasses to wool merchants. Grade I; open daily.
-
St George's Church, Hampnett
Sight · Church · Northleach
St George's is the small Norman church of Hampnett, a hamlet a mile from Northleach, built about 1125. Its chancel was painted around 1868 to 1871 under William Wiggin, later its rector, with stencilled flowers and stars, and survived a villagers' fund to remove it. Grade I.