Author: jimmyc1968

Lancaster Venues 26 to 28

This week I continue the tale of my extensive visit to the 2025 Lancaster Live festival. The White Cross pub is situated in a refurbished cotton mill warehouse that was owned by Storey’s Cotton Mill who sensibly obtained a strategic and geographical position next to Lancaster Canal. They used to store oilcloth, linoleum and other chemicals there.

There are records dating back to 1820 which indicate there was a coach station located in that area at that time.  The name of the pub which opened in 1987 links to an original stone white cross that was located about 200 yards away.  It was initially a Bass Taverns establishment before the current owners Tim Tomlinson, and his team took over residency in 2004, and they have created a fine hostelry with over twenty rotating ales.

Lancaster White Cross. Image Credit Visit Lancashire.

Tim also now owns two other pubs Merchants 1688 and the Stonewell Tap in the city centre and is also involved in the organising of the festival I was attending. I recall first visiting in the 1990’s and also had a rendezvous there on my 50th birthday shindig after we had gravitated back after an overnight stop in Glasgow.

It is a pub accessed via the canal towpath from either one of the two adjacent bridges. It takes full advantage of its picturesque location by having extensive seating outside which can cater for up to 300 people. Even though it was an October day it was warm enough for us to grab one of those canal side tables and quaff one of their special brewed Festival ales. Munchies kicked in at that stage, and we dined on a fish finger butty which was sourced from nearby Fleetwood.

They do not as a rule stage live music however, they made an exception for the festival weekend, and they had acts playing at the Lancaster White Cross Acoustic Stage located just inside the doorway. Performing was a local artist and singer/songwriter Eleanor Bennett who alongside displaying her art, also undertakes sound and singing workshops.

Eleanor Bennett. Image Credit eleanorbennettsartstumblr.com

Further into the venue was located Lancaster White Cross Main Stage where another local 5-piece combo called Chimps of the Future took to the boards. They formed in 2021 and perform their own material and were in the rock mould. They were good fun and gathered quite a decent audience.

The owners of the White Cross have previously admitted in the past they have lived in the shadow of the more well known Lancaster Water Witch, which was our next destination. It is located about five minutes’ walk away and is another canal path hostelry.

The original Water Witch was not a boozer but was in fact a seventy six foot packet boat that plied its trade on the canal in the 1830’s with the premise of combatting the new railways. Alongside carrying people, they also transported parcels and mail, and they would set off from Kendal at 6am and arrived in Preston at 1pm, halving the journey time of previous packet boats and probably completing the trip in quicker time than some Northern trains do today!

They had scope to cater for up to 120 commuters who were housed in two heated cabins and stewards were on hand to provide refreshments, though unfortunately I don’t think butter pies would have been included on the menu at that stage. It travelled at a princely ten miles an hour and was pulled by horses who thankfully had an equine relay change every four miles. The fare for the cabins on the trip were three shillings for first class and two shillings for second class. 

  Lancaster Water Witch. Image Credit waterwitchlancaster.co.uk

The building itself was previously a canal company stable block and opened as a pub under its current name in 1978. It is a long narrow atmospheric public house with bare stone walls and floors and as a taller punter I have to crouch down a smidge on entering. It is a renowned food establishment and similar to the White Cross there are a plethora of outdoor seats.

It is a hostelry I have visited many times over the years, especially in the summer months and was our first port of call after we cycled the entire Preston to Lancaster canal in 2005. They occasionally have acts playing and, on our visit, there was a local acoustic duo called Outatime playing indie covers in a little window alcove about halfway down the bar area.

Manchester Venues 194 to 195

On the Friday of 29th August 2025, I unsurprisingly yet again sallied into Manchester for a gig, but this time I had an hour of opportunity before I was meeting up with a pal for a pre-gig aperitif. So, I thought I would embark on a Jimmy treasure hunt to see if I could tick off any other venues not previously attended. As a result, I chose an area of town near to Deansgate that I do not visit on a regular basis on my other evening gig jaunts.

I alighted the train at Manchester Oxford Road station and gravitated to the left down Oxford Road into Peter Street were residing opposite Albert Hall is Manchester Impossible. This establishment was previously Bar 38 and possibly prior to that Pizza Express, but my memory is a tad hazy on that latter reference.

Bar 38. Image Credit restaurantsofmanchester.com

In 2005, Bar 38 was one of the locations alongside the Metropolitan University Students Union venue to stage a four night residency for an American TV programme called Total Request Live, though I have no personal recollection of that show. The premise of it was that at the chosen locations they played music videos and staged live music in the venues. It was compered by the likes of Trevor Nelson and Zane Lowe with acts playing including Editors, Mystery Jets, Kooks and the rapper Kenzie.

After a couple of years of inactivity after Bar 38 disappeared, Impossible opened in 2017. The new owner was Aaron Mellor who was the manager of Tokyo Industry’s (not the old Tokyo Joes night club in Preston!). He brought to the table his pedigree of being the UK’s largest privately owned nightclub operator having previously run popular club nights in Ibiza, New York and London.

The three floor site undertook a £3m renovation with the 500 capacity basement named the Theatre of Impossible, which was designed with the intention being a 21st century version of a nightclub, hence the theatre title. It came complete with a large dancefloor and long bar and had opening hours of between 10pm and 4pm at weekends.   

Impossible Bar. Image Credit Visit Manchester

The mezzanine area upstairs is a gin area badged with the informal name of ‘Ginpossible’, with an eighteen page menu listing a choice of over ninety gins. They also apparently have a cryogenic freezer, one of only three in the world, which has the capability to freeze alcohol to minus 74 degrees and thus creates edible cocktails! 

The ground floor is a bar and eatery with a 280 capacity where they serve tucker until 9pm. They also stage live music with slightly pretentious names such as Industry Thursday and First Call Friday. They have a large south facing outside terrace space on the Great Northern complex side of the building.

On the night in question, I was mulching past this area and saw a punter having a smoking break and through the open door I could hear some tuneage. Not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth I adopted my scarlet pimpernel pose and tailgated them through the door. I leaned innocuously on a side wall and watched a couple of tracks of drifting loungecore from a singer called Sally before leaving via the same route.

I am sure you can gain easy standard entrance via the front door, but I am going to generate some poetic licence here and retain the unjustified notion of me grabbing an ‘illegal’ cheeky bonus gig and venue!

I then headed over to Bridge Street, which is located off Deansgate, and which takes you down to Salford Central station. On the west side of the road is the appropriately named Manchester B Lounge at the Bridge. It first opened its doors back in 1808 under the moniker of The Pack Horse.

The Bridge. Image Credit todobares.com

More recently it has had spells as The Bridge Street Tavern and then morphed into the award winning gastro pub The Bridge which under the chef Mr Owen-Brown was renowned for Lancashire sourced grub. The latest incarnation was instigated by the same folk who introduced the B Lounge at the Brunswick pub over near Piccadilly station.   

The pub has a traditional layout and a long thin bar area and in the upstairs space there is a dining area and a function room for hire. This area also provides to a small roof top garden space. The latest version of the pub now stages live music and when I visited there was a local singer called Tania performing some jaunty folk tunes.