The Steam Packet, at 51 Stanley Street, will be offered by Auction House Cumbria on Thursday, September 10. Victorian originsHistoric trade directories held by the University of Leicester show that the Steam Packet was operating on Stanley Street by 1873, when Mary McKegg was listed as its landlady. LGBTQ historyA record contributed to Historic England’s Pride of Place LGBTQ heritage project states: "The Steam Packet was Cumbria’s only (openly) gay bar." The Pride of Place record says the pub was subsequently renamed the Harbour Side Bar and remained gay-friendly. In 2007, American LGBTQ magazine Out included the Steam Packet in its feature naming 50 of the world's greatest gay bars.