Tag: Lancaster Live Festival

Lancaster Venues 29 to 31

I return this week to the ongoing review of the Lancaster Live Festival in October 2025. Our next port of call was Lancaster Dalton Square which is a public space that is located at the top end of town and is named after John Dalton, who built the area back in the 18th century. The previous occupants back in the 13th century housed a Dominican Friary there, while their church and cemetery are buried beneath the adjoining streets.

To the right resides Palatine Hall, which has had former lives of the Hippodrome variety hall, opera house, county cinema and catholic chapel, one might say they have certainly had their usage of that building. It is also overlooked by Lancaster Town Hall, and the centrepiece is the Queen Victoria monument donated to the city in 1907.

Dalton Square. Image Credit photonorth.co.uk

During the afternoon of our visit, they had some family friendly events on the square, and we caught a segment of the Milnthorpe Steel Band’s set. The band had an unusual derivation as it sparked from a steel band in London selling a small number of pans to a primary school teacher in Milnthorpe in Cumbria in 1996.

The enthusiasm of teacher Andy Whitfield then led to the creation of a school steel band, which evolved into a community group which was known colloquially as ‘Din in a Bin’. In 2005, the two combos joined together to form the band who play together today, and in 2016 they obtained charitable status. I have always loved the steel sound, and they were terrific fun and they played a festival friendly set by incorporating Coldplay and Abba covers.

In one corner of the square resides a rather impressive Grade 2 listed three storey Georgian building with Victorian frontage. It has previously been the Mayor of Lancaster’s house, a working men’s club and also the Blob Shop, but since 2006 it has been the home of the excellent award-winning Lancaster Borough public house. Those commendations include winning Lancaster’s best pub award in 2016, which is no mean achievement with the plethora of fine hostelries located in the city.

Lancaster Borough. Image Credit booking.com

The Horner family opened the establishment and undertook a major refurbishment in 2013 with the addition of fourteen en-suite bedrooms and their own purpose built brewery. They hold comedy nights on a Sunday, have a beer garden space at the rear and the venue can also be hired out for weddings and private functions. They are linked up with the nearby independent Dukes cinema, and they have a commendable environmental ethos including initiatives such as solar panels and their own purified tap water. 

When you enter you arrive initially in the pub space where they always have a fine selection of ales available and they also have received continuous CAMRA recognition. From there you reach a restaurant area where they serve terrific gastropub fare. Over the years we have had many excellent meals and have chosen it specifically for birthday visits, resulting in regularly leaving in a relaxed and replete state for the walk back to the station and the last train home.  

I have never been aware of any music being staged here but they made an exception for the festival. So, on the day in a very busy front room I saw a set by local singer/songwriter Molly Warburton.

A couple of minutes trot from there to Church Street brings you to Lancaster Mint Café Bar. This is a small cocktail bar that has been in play for a few years and opens until 2am at the weekends and they also have ‘Mint’ cards, I wonder if they are in spearmint or peppermint colours?!

Mint Cafe. Image Credit thingstodoinlancaster.co.uk

Apparently, a couple of years ago a few local students formed an inaugural Lancaster Cocktail society where they utilise Mint for their monthly cocktail society meetings. When we arrived, we discovered there was a mini stage inside the main door where a very personable acoustic singer called Olli Heath was performing. He was taking requests, but the shout outs were a tad commercial for me.

I am pleasantly surprised when I reflect that this blog has been running now for 6.5 years as I initially did not think it would have this longevity. As you may have deduced by now, I am an avid ‘statto’ and have periodically reflected that in my mind by comparing the blog numbers against other lengthy time span achievements i.e. highest individual test cricket scores.  

Thus, as this is my 333rd edition, I have married that up to Graham Gooch’s famous 10-hour 28 minutes innings of that very number in 1990 against India, a performance so renowned even a 333 model version of a cricket bat was created in his honour!

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.