Category: Lancaster

Lancaster Venues 37 to 39

The next destination on our 2025 Lancaster Live music festival jaunt was Lancaster Boars Head situated on Great John Street near Dalton Square.It is a proper local establishment with pool tables and sports robustly advertised on the tv’s. One reviewer of the establishment eloquently described it as a ‘Star Wars’ bar, a phrase I have used myself previously to best describe the clientele encountered on the 1.24am ghost train from Manchester to Preston that I used to catch in the 1990’s.

The hostelry was in a boisterous state when I landed on a late Saturday afternoon and on stage were the Rock Twins.  The duo derives from the Blackburn area and consist of Steve Gaunt and Ian Wilson (known as Endy), the former named once apparently performed in front of the Queen. Their name evolves from the fact that the original singer was also called Ian Wilson, thus the alphabetical Twins moniker. I returned briefly the following day into another vibrant setting with a local lass called Loana Christy performing.

The Boars Head. Image Credit tripadvisor

We then took a detour to drop our bags at our digs for the evening, namely the Lancaster Sun Hotel & Bar. The Sun is a Grade II listed historic building with a handily placed south facing beer garden. It was originally built on the site of a Tudor residence named Stoop Hall and there is a recorded licence running all the way back to 1680. It reflected its roots for a while by having the name the Sun Inn on Stoop Hall, potentially named after the stables that were housed at the rear of the building.

It was a huge building in the 18th century with a grand total of 70 windows and in 1784 it was halved in size to make way for the adjoining Sun Street. It was chosen for the sheriff’s quarterly sessions prior to the judge’s lodgings being built and also for the Lancaster Musical Society. Like many other hostelries there are claims that Bonnie Prince Charlie once supped a cold ale there!

In the latter part of the 20th century, it was a tired looking hostelry before the Lancaster Brewery took over the reins in 2003. They undertook a highly comprehensive overhaul which took ten years to complete but was respectful enough to retain the original stone walls, beams and window frames. They also bought the next door property of 65 Church Street to build the hotel rooms and during that refurbishment some items of roman era pottery were discovered.     

 

Sun Inn. Image Credit sunhotelandbar.co.uk

I have been visiting the Sun for around three decades and it has always been one of my favourite pubs in Lancaster. One of the many reasons is due to the very fine Lancaster brewery beer where within their range they have Blonde, Amber, Black, Red and IPA which always presents a devilish choice when I approach the bar. Joyfully, though admittedly only periodically they stock their brewery beverages in my local supermarket.

As referenced above they have lodgings and it seemed an apposite place to rest our weary heads, and we were allocated an appropriate attic room with a sloping ceiling. They also served a fine breakfast for us to gird our loins prior to Day 2 of the festival!

I don’t think the pub normally stages live music, but they had made an exception on that day and we saw Molly Warburton playing, who I had earlier seen performing in the Borough. Those multiple shows are a regular occurrence at the event with bands straddling various venues across the weekend.   

We then made our way over to Lancaster Hogarths on George Street. The building first erected in 1892 has had previous lives as a Comet and Cycle 2000 store and also Milady House Toffees where they were apparently renowned for a mean caramel!  In the late 1990’s it turned into a hostelry, initially as Varsity until 2004, then looked like it closed for a while before reopening as Oscars wine bar and bistro in 2012. Then in 2018 it morphed again into its current guise and is kitted out in a Victorian Gin Palace style stocking over 120 brands, much like the Preston branch which is known locally as Hogwarts! 

Hogarths Pub. Image Credit ambertaverns.co.uk

There is a striking mural as you enter into the building, and they have a private karaoke bar in their upstairs space. When we visited there was a local lad called Mark McKenna singing and he did a decent cover of Chris Isaaks ‘Wicked Game’. His website outlines that he can also masquerade as a DJ, so you could receive a ‘2 for 1 deal’!

He was previously the lead singer of a Morecambe band in the 1980’s called The Ice Factory which was spookily named after the ice cream factory where they used to rehearse.  They were quite highly touted at the time but despite a few TV appearances and support slots to Youssou N’Dour and Blur they like many others before and after them, self-imploded in 1991.

Lancaster Venues 35 to 36

Our next port of call at the 2025 Lancaster Live festival was the Lancaster Golden Lion. This is one of the oldest of the town’s public houses as one has existed on this very spot on Moor Lane since the 15th century.  This hostelry sat on route from Lancaster Castle to Gallows Hill and is allegedly the venue where prisoners were allowed one last beverage on the way to their execution, and this list includes the famous Pendle Witches.

One local legend pertaining to this is that one tee-total chap refused the offer of a last drink, (not even a diet coke) and was then summarily hanged. Had he sensibly stayed for a cold one he would have been in the warm environs of the pub when his pardon was delivered by a courier. The lesson here is to never refuse an ale when it is offered to you, an approach I heartily approve of!   

Pendle Witches. Image Credit pinterest.com

The building is purported to be haunted, where one regular spectre is the nun whose job it was to escort the condemned up the hill. It was also locally known at one point as the Whittle, the gruesome back story behind that moniker is that there was a mineral water well very close by and the local butcher used it to wash his whittle after quartering the rebels in 1715. Unsurprisingly it was never used again for drinking purposes!

None of the original building remains now, however the cellars have been used for centuries, and it is believed that within those there is a secret doorway that takes you to a veritable maze of tunnels that smugglers used in those days.

It is nowadays a small, homely spot with open mic nights on a Tuesday, live bands on a Thursday and a Saturday and folk nights on a Sunday. On the downstairs stained-glass window, you can still clearly see the imprint of Lion Ales. The Lion brewery was located in Little Harwood (their beer was also conversely known as Matthew Brown) and in my early boozing days in the mid-80’s, the town of Blackburn was awash with Lion pubs alongside many Thwaites houses, the other local brewer.

Golden Lion. Image Credit Epicure & Culture.

The huge conglomerate of Scottish and Newcastle made an offer of £186 million that the brewery could not feasibly refuse in 1987 but then they shamefully did not promote them and chose to close Lion Ales down for ever a couple of years later, and that as they say was that!

I only recall visiting there once before prior to attending a Thrills gig at the Sugarhouse round the corner in 2003. On my second attendance there was a Morecambe indie pop four piece called Life in Neon on stage. They had only formed a year earlier and had just released their first album, which was titled ‘Live in Neon’ and was recorded at Lancaster Great Hall.        

We then mulched the short distance to Church Street and headed into the Lancaster Stonewell Tap which dates back to 1602.This establishment was known for many years as the Stonewell Tavern before new landlord Tim Tomlinson took over ownership in December 2017 added to his existing pubs The White Cross and The Merchants 1688.  

He decided to take the hostelry in a different direction by following the trend of craft beer establishments and this also generated the new rebranded name. The location of Stonewell does have some local precedent as it appears on the first known Lancaster map drafted in 1610. The pub has also previously been known as Paddy O’Mulligans but the one with the most longevity is when it was the White Horse for a period of 180 years.

Stonewell Tap. Image Credit bpprodstorage.blob.core.windows.net

It has always been a well known music pub with live gigs taking place on Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays with a vinyl DJ hitting the decks on Friday evenings. It also has regular inclusion in the annual Lancaster Beer and Pie Festival roster.

In its Mulligans phase they had visits from Countdown’s Carol Vorderman, TV gardener Charlie Dimmock and actor Timothy West and the ‘Rochdale Cowboy’ Mike Harding used to be a regular participant in their trad music session nights.

On our late afternoon foray, we caught a portion of a local three-piece folky act called Filthy Laugh. They have been in existence for over a decade and have prolifically recorded seven albums in the last five years. Their name derives from a lyric in the Belle and Sebastian song ‘The Boy with the Arab Strap’.