Lazy Days in Lancaster – Day 3

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21st June 2026

Morning, loyal readers, and thanks for reading my Blog! It’s our second full day here in Lancaster, where we’re spending a few days exploring the local area. Yesterday, we dodged the showers and picked off a few destinations that were on our list (see below), including the Castle, the Gaol, the Courtroom, the Police Museum and the Judges Lodgings’ Museum. Phew! 😮

Missed a Post?

Thursday’s is HERE
Friday’s is HERE

Currently, we’re staying in The Borough Lancaster Hotel, which puts us within walking distance of everywhere we’ve wanted to go. It’s quite a compact area anyway, and we’ve not missed the car at all.

Today looked like a kinder day weather-wise (thankfully!). But just in case, for our first adventure, we’re inside, with a backstage tour around Lancaster’s Grand Theatre – a ten-minute walk away.

Originally, we also had plans to visit the Town Hall to look around. They’re always much more interesting on the INSIDE than their exterior suggests. However, a bit of local knowledge is a great thing, and we discovered that they’re not open to the public on weekends! ☹️. Oh well, we’ve got the City Museum (located in the OLD City Hall) on our list and from there, we’ll see how it goes. So, we’ve got a plan – sort of – but before all that, it’s…

Breakast!

What’s that acronym? ‘KISS’ – Keep it Simple, Sausage! 😁 and we certainly did! It was a much lighter affair than yesterday’s humongous ‘Breakfast Burrito’ that almost needed a table to itself! 😁.

The Grand Theatre

As planned, our first cultural stop of the day was at the Grand Theatre where we’d booked ourselves on the 10.30 Tour.

The Grand Theatre is one of the oldest theatres in England and the third-oldest in Britain, having been in near-continuous use since 1782 👍. We were one of the first to arrive, but it soon filled up. With fifteen minutes to go, there were almost 30 of us waiting for kick-off.

Adrian, one of our Guides, was taking his role very seriously and came dressed as one of the original Victorian owners – Charles Whitlock. He clearly knew his stuff and kept our attention throughout.

Because of the large numbers today, we were split into two groups. Hats off (see what I did there!?) to the staff here, as they’re all unpaid volunteers and these tours run across the week on most days. Irena, another volunteer, was also on hand to look after the other half of the group.

Adrian took us through the chronological timeline of the Theatre’s history, where it became clear it certainly had experienced a few ups and downs – and a few fires too!

The Theatre receives no grants at all and relies wholly on the few productions it puts on through the year, plus the income generated from ticket sales from well-known comedians who use the venue as a type of ‘test bed’ for their performances before hitting the bigger Theatres around the UK.

Whilst Adrian entertained and educated half of us on stage (literally) Irena (above) showed us the area below the stage, including the dressing rooms.

Looking at the photographs hanging on the walls, there were more than a few famous faces (and there were at least three more walls like the two above!).

Twenty minutes later, we swapped around, giving our group an opportunity to experience the view seen by performers, where Adrian continued to explain how the Theatre grew in popularity, plus age-old theatre conventions including not wishing a Production: ‘Good Luck’ and not mentioning the name of ‘that Scottish Play’ 🤔.

…and what a view! Although we learned later that, because of theatre lighting, generally, the actor cannot usually see anything past the first two rows! Who knew! 🤔

We ended the Tour on the technical side of a production, where Adrian explained the increasing use of technology here in the 21st century.

Just before we said goodbye to the Theatre, there was just one final opportunity to experience the more usual view of the Stage! 👍. A free cup of coffee also awaited us where we had an opportunity to chat with the staff. All in all, even if you’re not a theatre fan, this was a fascinating insight into their world and delivered with enthusiasm and energy by the volunteers.

What made this experience even more extraordinary was that it was completely free of charge! Thanks, everyone! 👍😊

The City Museum

The Old Town Hall building in which the Museum is housed is of Georgian design and was recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II-listed building. It was designed by Major Thomas Jarrett and built between 1781 and 1783.

Inside, they had packed a lot into the two floors. Just £4 each for admission – great value!

Immediately past the admissions area were numerous exhibits that were part of the ‘Hidden Hoards and Fascinating Finds’ series – Lancaster’s summer exhibition. Wow! if you’re into coins, especially, there are some amazing collections on show here.

A real Roman milestone!

As we headed upstairs, we were in for a real treat!

The above ‘Memorial to Insus‘ (unearthed in 2005 and read more HERE) was probably the most valuable piece on display here (because of its rarity) and dates back to around c80AD – it looked brand new!

Similarly, the Burrow Carvings, a collection of 3rd-century Roman stone carvings discovered in 1794 near the Roman road into Lancaster and just as rare!

As we continued around the First Floor, we discovered a wide range of exhibits depicting the Lancashire Life…

But the best was yet to come in the shape of a museum-within-a-museum covering the King’s own Royal Regiment.

Covering 1680 to the present day.

The photos only show a fraction of what was on display here today. For those with only a passing interest in military history, this very comprehensive exhibition makes it all worthwhile. Read more about it HERE (but be prepared to put in a significant amount of time to do it justice!).

Wow! That was seriously well done! 👍👍

We ended our visit with a trip to the museum Shop (actually, it was the only way through to the exit! 😊) where it punched well above its weight in terms of range and quality – keyring or fridge magnet anyone??? 😂

I think we were now all cultured out and it was turning into a very warm day out there. There was only one thing for it – ‘Elevenses’ – at a very relaxed 1.30pm!!! 😊where we stopped off at nearby Diggles.

Pitstop

Another GREAT coffee (this is becoming a regular ‘thing’) with a scrummy slice of Lemon Drizzle Cake 😁😁 with superb service as well. Just leave us here! 👍👍

Maritime Museum

After the pitstop, we decided to walk further to the Maritime Museum.

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It was a very pleasant walk as we headed for the old Custom House that is now the home of the Maritime Museum. Again, just a paltry £4 each to get in where the Museum is split into two halves. It occupies two historic buildings on St. George’s Quay, the heart of the city’s 18th-century harbour. Opened in 1985, it was designed in 1764 by Richard Gillow (Yes, he of the famous ‘Gillow’s cabinet-maker empire). It also incorporates the upper floor of the neighbouring warehouse, where goods were stored after being shipped into the port from all over the world.

We were advised to visit the Warehouse first, which put the town of Lancaster into a maritime context (who knew that the town used to be the fourth largest slave-trade port in England – and 29000 African slaves were traded here.

The Museums up here have all been excellent, and the Maritime Museum was no exception. It comprehensively covered everything – in a maritime sense – from slavery to offshore drilling for Gas in Morecambe (who knew? 🤔).

The above boat is called a ‘Nobby’ and is used in the cockle-boat business in Morecambe Bay.

Another great experience, and we now understand the significance of Lancaster in the broader context of the rise and fall of a town’s maritime success.

At this point, lesser mortals would have grabbed a cab back to the Hotel. Not us! We decided to (ahem!) ‘experiment’ by turning LEFT out of the Museum and locate the Railway Station so that it’s more straightforward tomorrow when we take the train to Morecambe. Well, safe to say, it did all work out, but the walk was a lot further than either of us imagined – and it was now the hottest it had been all day 🥵🥵. On a positive note, it’s upped our step-count, plus, we’ve now discovered parts of the town that most people don’t get to see!

So, all good then! 😮🤔😂😂😂😂😂😂

Phew! The afternoon was a real scorcher (when we did most of our walking! 😬), but in total, we covered about 3-4 miles on foot.

Tomorrow…

We’re taking the train to Morecambe, where we’re having lunch at the famous Art Deco Midland Hotel.

We’re also going to locate the statue of Eric Morecambe – “Bring Me Sunshine” springs to mind! 🙄 – see you then!