Allisons Chemist

Allisons Chemist Your local pharmacy The pharmacy has been trading under its current name since the turn of the 20th century.

JWW Allison & Sons is a long-standing independent pharmacy that has been in its premises on Cockermouths Main Street for over 200 years, widely known as Allisons or Allisons Chemist. The pharmacy has had the same owner, Mrs Vera Lowrey for over 30 years. The shop is very lucky to have many loyal staff, who between them have served JWW Allison & Sons for almost 200 years!!

Good morning,We are still receiving a lot of requests for flu jabs. We are back in the pharmacy now and we are offering ...
24/11/2025

Good morning,

We are still receiving a lot of requests for flu jabs. We are back in the pharmacy now and we are offering the service on weekdays in between our existing appointments for our other other services.

If I’m in and haven’t got someone in with me then they are available on a walk in basis.

Please call ahead to check I’m in if making a special journey.

Flu jabs cost £15. Private COVID jabs cost £80. Please note that NHS COVID jabs require an appointment.

And on the poster. AI had me grinning menacingly in its first attempt, so this poster is pretty good!

Thanks

16 years ago today. 😢 When I look at this I suddenly feel a lot better about the prospect of dealing with a broken robot...
19/11/2025

16 years ago today. 😢
When I look at this I suddenly feel a lot better about the prospect of dealing with a broken robot. 💪🏽

Good morning,Some of you have followed the progress of our recent issues with our dispensing robot, with a few people ev...
15/11/2025

Good morning,

Some of you have followed the progress of our recent issues with our dispensing robot, with a few people even checking in on it whilst in the shop.

Well unfortunately things have deteriorated markedly and our German helper who’s been with us for 15 years is unfortunately beyond saving. As one of the people who went to Germany and the Netherlands to see robots in action before we took the considerable step of adding one to our premises, this is a sad moment. I can’t lie and say that he hasn’t given me many moments of frustration over the years and he has never once made a cup of tea, but he’s also revolutionised the way we work and being without a robot is going to be a real challenge after working with one for so long. Newer staff have only ever known pharmacy work with a robot, so I shall be there to support them during this sad time…

When we put our robot in, it was in the aftermath of the 2009 flood and we had a vacant building, with walls and ceilings taken out so it was the perfect time for such a bold move. After getting a robot salesman in this week to do a feasibility study, we arrived just short of taking the roof off to get an average-sized robot of today in our premises.

So in true Allison’s fashion, we will attempt to turn a negative into a positive and change the way we work again so that we can hopefully improve on our service going forward. There’s no reason why we can’t do this and I for one am relishing the challenge 😬.

In the meantime, there will be a lot of running up and down stairs so please bear with us. There’s a lot to do before we get to where we need to be and at present we have a two tonne robot offering nothing but an obstacle upstairs.

We will be back with updates as we have them and we look forward to the ‘exciting’ times ahead. Between delivery vans and robots I’m going to end up on first name terms with the guys at Moss Bay Metals before long 🙄.

Have a great weekend

Good morning,In line with everything else technical that’s going on wish us at the moment, our travel clinic website (Cu...
11/11/2025

Good morning,

In line with everything else technical that’s going on wish us at the moment, our travel clinic website (Cumbria Travel Clinic) is currently down.

We are in the process of changing provider and it should be back up shortly hopefully. Until then please get in touch if you have a query about our vaccination services.

Thanks

Allison’s Chemist

Good morning,Firstly, I must apologise for this poster. It was done at short notice and this was the best that AI could ...
10/11/2025

Good morning,

Firstly, I must apologise for this poster. It was done at short notice and this was the best that AI could come up with! I’d like to make it clear that we are not injecting cute dogs. We’ll leave that to our friends at Millcrofts!! 😂

We’ve had a temporary shortage of rabies vaccine and haven’t been able to take any new appointments for a week or so. We’ve now got some more vaccine in stock, so if you need it for your travels please get in touch.

Thanks

01900822292

Since we started in May we have seen lots of patients in our private weight management clinic. We’ve seen some fantastic...
07/11/2025

Since we started in May we have seen lots of patients in our private weight management clinic. We’ve seen some fantastic results and many patients are working towards their targets and a significant number have reached their targets and have stopped using the recommended medication. I’d like to think that these patients have benefited from the support and guidance received whilst they’ve been enrolled on the service.

If you’d like to join our service then please give us a call and we can make you an appointment to speak with our pharmacist.

Good morning,Just a reminder that we offer a private COVID service for those who aren’t eligible to receive one on the N...
06/11/2025

Good morning,

Just a reminder that we offer a private COVID service for those who aren’t eligible to receive one on the NHS.

NHS COVID jabs are still available by making a booking on the national booking website or by calling 119. Link to book in the comments.

Thanks

Another fantastic display this year. Well done to all involved. 🎇👏🏽
02/11/2025

Another fantastic display this year. Well done to all involved. 🎇👏🏽

Good morning,Here’s three useful facts about our COVID vaccination services:*FACT ONE*We are back in the pharmacy and al...
02/11/2025

Good morning,

Here’s three useful facts about our COVID vaccination services:

*FACT ONE*
We are back in the pharmacy and all NHS COVID jabs require an appointment (via national booking system or 119). If you have an elderly relative then please consider helping them with this if it’s a problem. Link in comments.

*FACT TWO*
Only those who are over 75 by the end of January 2026 or who are immunosuppressed now get a free NHS COVID jab.

*FACT THREE*
We do have a private COVID jab available, it costs £80 and is made by Pfizer.

Wherever possible, we will try to accommodate walk in NHS and private flu jabs in between all the other things that we do, but there may be a wait or you may be asked to call back at busy times and when I’m back in if you call and I’m out. I didn’t put myself through those insanely busy walk in clinics at the Globe a few weeks back to do it all over again in the pharmacy!

If you’d like a private COVID jab, then I’d advise ringing ahead to ensure we have them in stock as they’re not always available when we order them in and they’ve been very popular.

Thanks

**ROBOT UPDATE** 🤖The engineer has been and after the best part of 5 hours and lots of drilling and sawing has gotten us...
31/10/2025

**ROBOT UPDATE** 🤖

The engineer has been and after the best part of 5 hours and lots of drilling and sawing has gotten us up and running again, if not at full speed. But at this stage I’ll take that.

Thanks for your understanding as not having added pressure on top of the unavoidable technical issue does help us to navigate the situation much better.

In a new development, whilst the robot is back on track we now have a member of staff malfunctioning so I will be making a rare appearance tomorrow.

That does mean that anyone who can only make it for a flu jab on a Saturday can come in tomorrow and get one. Please note that this doesn’t apply to NHS COVID jabs, they still require an appointment during the week.

Thanks

Good morning,Some of you will know this, and others will be shocked to discover that we are anywhere near this modern!Si...
30/10/2025

Good morning,

Some of you will know this, and others will be shocked to discover that we are anywhere near this modern!

Since the flood of 2009 and us finally getting back in our premises, we have had a dispensing robot upstairs. It served the purpose of storing medication higher up, giving us much needed room in our small dispensary as well as streamlining our dispensing process. It’s basically like a big vending machine, which we load and it then sends the medication down as we dispense it.

About 80% of what we dispense comes out of the robot so it’s a vitally important member of our team.

However…….

Of late our robot has been slowing down a lot (I’m not sure how many human years 15 robot years is) and yesterday a rather important piece of metal just fell off it. It’s survived threats of a Basil Fawlty style thrashing many times, but threats won’t cut it this time and I fear that a big decision on its future is imminent.

So for the next day or two (we are hoping that the engineer arriving on Friday can fix it) it will take us longer to dispense your prescriptions as there’s going to be a lot of running up and down stairs for us. So if you don’t really need your medication right now, then we’d appreciate it you gave us a few extra days to get back on track. If you need it then we’ll obviously take to the stairs!!

Thanks for your understanding

Good evening,That’s us done in the Globe for this year with our flu and COVID clinics. We will continue to vaccinate in ...
24/10/2025

Good evening,

That’s us done in the Globe for this year with our flu and COVID clinics. We will continue to vaccinate in the pharmacy but on a much smaller scale.

I’d like to thank everyone who’s come to us for their jab this season and for all the lovely comments we’ve received. I have huge appreciation for my volunteers who continue to step up every time I ask them to and do such an outstanding job.

Thanks to Peter and Helen who own the Globe and despite running a growing holiday accommodation business, continue to help us out by offering the ground floor to be used for our clinics. Without it we’d be stumped and a lot of people would find it much harder to get their jabs.

And finally thanks to my staff in the pharmacy who have to fill in all the gaps and answer all the questions when I’m in clinic mode.

Anyway, it’s time for a beer. 🍺

Have a lovely weekend.

Cheers

Nat

Address

31 Main Street
Cockermouth
CA139

Opening Hours

Monday 8:30am - 6pm
Tuesday 8:30am - 6pm
Wednesday 8:30am - 6pm
Thursday 8:30am - 6pm
Friday 8:30am - 6pm
Saturday 8:30am - 4pm

Telephone

+441900822292

Website

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