National Heritage Rail Award bid by unique Lancaster pub

The Tite & Locke at Lancaster train station is waiting to hear if it’s been officially shortlisted for a National Heritage Rail Award.

Lancaster’s Brewery’s project to develop a damp, cold, exhausted series of ramshackle rooms at the station into a busy, commercial bar operation took more than three years of work.

Drudging, bureaucratic, tedious work that tested everyone's patience. To further complicate matters, Lancaster station is listed and the project had to be done in tandem with local conservation officers.

Network Rail speedily completed the initial works, levelling the floors, fixing the roof and re-engineering the hotchpotch of little rooms into usable space.

Then, after endless delays and back room discussions, the pub finally received planning permission for its internal designs.

A tiny, viewable and jam-packed beer cellar took some persuasion, as did a host of other complexities such as the air con system and fireplaces. All of this was done in the shadow of Covid, which slowed even further the glacial speed.

A brewery spokesman said: “Returning disused listed buildings into commercial or residential use is much, much harder than it should be. I doubt whether any of us involved have the resilience to ever go through such a project again. Well, until the next time.”

On February 14, the internal refurbishments began and the venue opened fully on April 7. More than 30 contractors, almost all locally based, were involved in the job of rewiring, rebuilding, installing, painting and furnishing the higgledy-piggledy collection of rooms that make up the bar.

It opened, on time and – for once – on budget.

The spokesman added: “Few people realise how many of these projects to revitalise old railway buildings are ongoing. Dozens of similar projects are happening all over the country. Reviving and re-energising empty railway buildings is something everybody can support and we can bear witness to that by the sheer number of visitors we now receive at the T&L.

"There's something curiously delightful about enjoying a drink just as a train comes hurtling through the station, the clashing and clanking of the engine combining delightfully with the sipping of your favourite tipple.”