Lancaster: Home Sweet Home…for Now

They gave you bride cake every day after dinner

Charles Dickens (stayed at the Kings Arms in 1857 & 1862)

Almost a year after making the decision to settle down in Lancaster, England for a couple years, I finally officially moved and am so excited to share with you the cute town we now live in. I visited last fall to get a taste of the city when Jimmy was already living here, and our friends Adam and Julie along with their daughter Elle came to visit too.  So, we’ve already seen quite a few of the city touristy spots.

The highlight of the city can be seen out of my home office window.

We live across a little cobblestone street from a castle built in the 11th century and still owned by the Queen.

Behind the castle stands the Lancaster Priory, which is the Church of England parish church built in the 15^th century.

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A Roman fort once stood at this site, so we are living on quite a historic hill. Just around the corner from us, remains of a Roman bath appear to have been part of a courtyard house owned by the commander of the fort.  You can still see the pillars that raised the floor to allow warm air to circulate below. 

One slightly creepy fact (which surprises me that we haven’t seen ghosts in our home….yet) is that Lancaster had the 2nd most hangings in England after the Tower of London with many of them occurring across the street in the castle. Just a couple houses down from us stands the Judges’ Lodgings, the accommodation and courthouse for the judges that came to town for the trials of all the criminals in the county, including Manchester and Liverpool.

Over 200 people between 1782 and 1865 were sentenced to death by hanging in this courthouse giving Lancaster the nickname of “the hanging town.”

Our new home is in a beautiful Georgian stone building built in the 1700s (top 2 floors of the skinny tall section).

Here is the entrance to our place, around back:

The building next to ours is actually a small museum furnished in the style of 1825, and the building on the end is the Dispensary, built in 1785 in response to a typhoid epidemic.

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Our short 5 min walk to the gym takes us down King’s Street, one of the oldest in Lancaster.  We pass the King’s Arms Hotel, which has played host to numerous famous people including Charles Dickens. 

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A few steps further down takes us past Penny’s Almshouse established in 1716 for 12 poor men by an endowment left by William Penny, the mayor of Lancaster.  In addition to the almshouse, there is also a chapel and charity school to educate the sons of craftsmen in reading, writing, and arithmetic.

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We live on the edge of the city center so have numerous restaurants, shops, our gym, grocery stores, and pubs within a couple minutes walk. We’ve already found a few favorite eating spots. Right on our block is The Merchant, a lovely brick-interior restaurant featuring traditional British cuisine in a refurbished 16^th-century cellar.

We took Adam, Julie, and Elle out for traditional Sunday roast there and topped it all off with a decadent sticky toffee pudding.

Sunday roast with all the fixings is served every week. I’m so excited to make this a monthly tradition. Who knows…maybe even weekly like a true Brit.

After living in DC and Boston and then all over the world the last few years, we were incredibly worried about the restaurant scene in this quaint town. But, we have been pleasantly surprised. One of the Thai restaurants offers more authentic cuisine than many  places we’ve been to in the US. Their curries are outstanding! And that is saying a lot because after spending a few months in Thailand, we have become quite picky with what we consider proper Thai food. We’ve already tried their green beef curry, red duck curry, and massaman curry. Plus a couple noodle dishes.

The apps tend to be a unique fusion cuisine but are also absolutely delicious – duck spring rolls!  I plan on being a regular at this restaurant as well. Kop khun kha, Blue Moon!

Another restaurant in Lancaster that has mastered modern fusion cuisine is Red Peppercorn.  Coconut laksa with lemongrass/butternut, Gobi Manchurian (fried cauliflower in a sweet and spicy sauce), spiced lamb in cardamom and chilli, and chicken curry with ginger and garlic were all stand-out tapas style plates that we enjoyed immensely.  Of course, once I realized this place was blog worthy, I hadn’t taken any pictures…but you can see the aftermath as well as the awesome lemon curd pavlova.

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Of course, in the UK, the Indian cuisine is going to be top-notch. We have multiple options, but one of our favorites Sultan of Lancaster has a cool atmosphere in this beautiful old building.

I had no idea that Chicken Tikka Masala is considered the national dish of England. So of course, we have to sample that alongside some of our other favorites such as lamb rogan josh.

Ice cream or gelato is always a must to cool down your mouth after spicy Indian cuisine. Luckily, the gelato shop in Lancaster was voted “Best in England 2017.” Leonardini Gelateria is a 3^rd generation gelato maker, and after being disappointed by the majority of shops around the world claiming to make quality Italian gelato, we think these guys are the real deal!

The older Italian owner, who actually lived in South America for awhile, was super friendly, and Jimmy had a lovely conversation with him in Spanish.

Food is always at the top of our list during our adventures. But, of course, Lancaster has more to offer than just a castle and some great food options.

Lancaster has a fairly impressive Roman Catholic Cathedral, built in the late 1850s, that we have not visited yet (or managed to get a decent picture of) but have walked by.

We were on our way with Adam, Julie, and Elle to check out the hilltop Ashton Memorial instead.

The memorial was built by a millionaire in 1907 in honor of his wife. The memorial is in Williamson Park with walking trails and playgrounds for the kids. The views over Lancaster and Morecambe Bay with the Lakes District mountains in the distance are gorgeous. The Ashton Memorial has been described as “England’s grandest folly” and the “Taj Mahal of the North.” A bit of a stretch, but it is beautiful.

On the walk to the Ashton Memorial, we also passed the Victoria Monument, given to the town by Lord Ashton in 1907.  This monument stands in front of the New City Hall, paid for by Lord Ashton, and built in 1909.

Lancaster has a twice weekly farmer’s market just down the street from us centered around this square with the apropos name Market Square. 

It is believed that this street and square came into being in the borough charter of 1193 when the town was given the right to hold a market here.  Pretty cool that we still enjoy this market today! Sausage rolls, beef pies, fresh eggs, organic veggies, and international cuisine such as Jamaican and Indian cuisine are the highlights.

Okay, somehow I found myself back to food. In that case, I have to mention the cool pubs. Isn’t that what the UK is all about?!? Jimmy enjoys their traditional room temperature cask ales, and I love British ciders. The Three Mariners is just a hop, skip, and jump away from us.  Formerly known as the Carpenter’s Arms, a pub has been on this site since the 1400s. They make a solid meat pie too.

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Our favorite pub is the Water Witch. On a sunny day, this is a delightful place to hang outside on the canal.

Of course, we may be biased because we also got to experience this pub with our friends and reminisce about the largest beer flight we ever had during our trip to Belgium together while enjoying a pretty outstanding beer and cider flight in Lancaster.

The Lancaster canal opened in 1797 and runs 42 miles through Lancashire. In 1798, the canal went from Lancaster to Preston and by 1820 was extended to Kendall.  The boat ride would take 14hrs and cost 6 shillings. 

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I haven’t yet but think this will make a lovely running trail. Speaking of running trails, a river also winds through Lancaster. I have enjoyed numerous runs on the trails along the Lune river so far.

A River. Canal. Pubs. Market Square. Hilltop Memorial. Thai food. Sunday roasts. Cathedral. Castle. That pretty much sums up our Lancaster experience so far. We look forward to finding some hidden gems here and also using this location as a spring board for road trips all through England and Scotland.