Category: Lancaster

Lancaster Venues 11 to 13

When attending a gig at Lancaster Library earlier this year we made our first visit to the new Tite and Locke bar on the station platform and noted a poster outlining the upcoming 13th edition of the Lancaster Music festival which piqued our interest. Thus, it came to pass on 14/10/23 that a group of seven made our debut appearance at the event.

It is an excellent well attended free festival taking place over three days over the weekend (Friday through to Sunday). It is a very wide ranging encompassing over 50 venues across the city including events within schools, musuems, theatres, cinemas, busking stops and also in a novel addition, even gigs taking place on a floating mobile stage on a barge on Lancaster Canal! The local legends Lovely Eggs headlined the festival on the Sunday night.

After an initial meeting and whistle wetting in the Tite and Locke at 1pm, we left the station and headed down to the nearby historic Lancaster Castle which I had not visited for a very long time. There was a decent crowd already gathered at this early hour and there were a suite of merchandise and food and drink stalls scattered around and there were festival programmes on sale.

Lancaster Castle. Image Credit melodromestage.co.uk

They had also set up a small outdoor stage within the castle grounds embossed in medieval ‘Game of Thrones’ style and named it the Melodrome Stage and a band called 2nd Leg were performing. They were a vibrant seven-piece combo complete with fiddles, harps and mandolins performing Irish and Scottish jigs and they had evolved from the Irish dance group Absolutely Legless. 

Nearby and standing as a gateway to Castle Hill is the Lancaster Storey Gardens Craic Inn where a stage had been set up in the gardens adjoining the building. The Grade II listed Storey building was constructed in 1887 and funded by local philanthropist Thomas Storey. It was built to commemorate Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee and was designed as a creative hub and covers diverse events such as business conferences, films, music and theatrical recitals.

Lancaster Storey building. Image Credit Visit Lancashire

On the outdoor stage we saw the Dundee folk singer Rhuari Campbell play. After playing in many other bands for a few years he was now heading out as a solo artist. There were also bands playing in the grand indoor building setting, but we unfortunately landed between the scheduled sets, so it didn’t allow me to tick this off as visited venue, at least not yet!  

A further short walk away and you arrived at China Street and the established rock venue in town The Pub. The establishment has been around for many years, and I recall visiting as far back as the late 1990’s but had never yet encountered a live act there. On the day they were rotating bands across two stages with Space set up as the headliners.

We landed at Lancaster The Pub Outdoor Stage set up in the beer garden and we shuffled out to there after purchasing an aperitif from the indoor bar. It was extremely busy and reputedly the most well attended venue on the day. On stage were a noisy rock band from Manchester called Luna Market and these kids could play. They were covering 1970’s standards and had a powerful female lead singer and an excellent guitarist, though I think he had played one too many games of ‘Guitar Legend’.

The Pub. Image Credit flickr.com

Whilst I stood there, I had a moment of clarity as I was thinking what more can there be in the world than watching a commendable rock band in an outside space at 3pm on a Saturday afternoon with a cold beer in hand and in attendance with good friends and like-minded punters, sounds like my kind of heaven!   

Lancaster Venues 8 to 10

I have always been fond of the old-fashioned quaintness of Lancaster train station and to further embellish their standing in my eyes they have recently opened a craft beer bar on the platform. In a nod to their heritage, they have named the establishment Tite & Locke after William Tite who built the station in 1846 during Joseph Locke’s expansion of the British railways.  I have not yet had an opportunity to visit but hope to rectify that in the near future.

Tite and Locke pub. Image Credit whatpub.com

Gill and I use to undertake an annual summer trip to Windermere passing through Carnforth station en route where Brief Encounter was filmed. We would raid the huge Booths supermarket outside the station for tasty picnic snacks and then catch the open top bus down to Bowness and chill on the green near to the lake.  On the way back to the train we once dived into the Albert pub in the village and I sampled a couple of pints of Hartleys Gold in the sunny beer garden, arguably the finest pint I have ever tasted!

On one other such trip we returned via Lancaster and visited the Penny Bank pub. Just before leaving I randomly slung a pound into the fruit machine which proceeded to instantly pay out two consecutive jackpots resulting in paying for the entire trip including a banquet feast at a local Chinese restaurant!

I can recall another lad’s trip to Bowness which involved a visit to the pitch and putt golf course, and I famously holed a 100-foot putt (the length increases every time I tell the tale!) from off the 18th green in monsoon conditions to win the day!

Back in Lancaster on Market Street there used to be a downstairs hostelry which I think was called Mitchells. We visited there on a stag do in 1998 and there was a couple of lads who for some bizarre reason began aggressively flicking beer mats at us, so being peace-loving souls, we bid a hasty departure to avoid any potential escalation. For the record, I have other wise found Lancaster an extremely friendly place to frequent.

The venue subsequently morphed into Lancaster 1725 Tapas Bar where alongside the food and drinks they used to periodically have live acoustic music and I saw Becky, Hannah and Richard and also the Italian Stallion (not Rocky Balboa!) there. The restaurant closed in 2018 and has only just recently reopened as Sydney’s, a second site following the success of the flagship endeavour in Settle.

1725 Tapas Bar. Image Credit pinterest.com

Heading down Market Street towards the train station you will find Lancaster Ye Olde John O Gaunt, which was established in 1871. It has always been an old-fashioned rustic pub with an Edwardian frontage and Grade 2 listed status and was named after the 14th century Duke of Lancaster. There are photos of musicians on the walls and a small beer garden at the rear. They have live music on the weekends and an open mic night on a Sunday. Whilst visiting I have witnessed a band called Sound Forum and an Oasis covers band.

Even nearer to the station is another small cosy pub called Lancaster Robert Gillow. It is owned by the Salford based Hyde’s brewery and is their most northerly outpost. As with all Hyde’s owned establishments, like the Fletcher Moss near me, it is a homely place with fine beer on tap and they had a more food focused area upstairs.

The Robert Gillow. Image Credit Her Campus.

They had music on most nights of the week, and they were firmly in the jazz/blues domain. Prior to heading off for the last train, around the 2013/2014 era I caught Dave Mitchell & Tony Crane and Boogie Bill play there. I had read that recently that the pub has changed its name to the Jailor’s Barrel but is still under Hyde’s tutelage.