Lancaster: A historical and criminological city

Group of people walking in the courtyard at the Castle

Lancaster isn’t just a beautiful historic city - it’s a place where the story of British crime and punishment has played out for hundreds of years.

Studying and living in Lancaster, you’re surrounded by sites that reveal how society dealt with offenders, how justice was delivered, and how attitudes to crime have changed over time.

For criminologists, Lancaster is a city to learn from, not just live in. The city lets you explore crime outside of the textbooks and in the buildings, landscapes and local stories that bring the subject to life. It’s a place where the past and present of justice sit side-by-side - and where every corner has something to teach you.

Lancaster Castle

Lancaster Castle is one of the most striking reminders of Britain’s long and complicated relationship with crime and punishment. Sitting high above the city, it’s easy to admire it for its architecture alone, but step inside and you’ll find a living timeline of how justice has been delivered for nearly a thousand years. The castle has been everything: a medieval stronghold, a Crown Court, a prison, and the site of some of the most famous trials in English history, including the Pendle Witch Trials of 1612. Walking through the old cells and courtrooms, you can see how ideas about guilt, punishment, and social order changed from one era to the next.

For students who want to understand how the modern justice system came to be, the castle offers an unfiltered look at the past - the mistakes, the milestones, and the people whose lives were shaped by the law long before criminology even existed as a field.

Lancaster Castle with students in the foreground

Lancashire Police Museum

Tucked inside the old prison wings of Lancaster Castle, the Lancashire Police Museum offers a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at how policing has evolved, not just in Lancashire, but across the UK. For criminology students, it’s a chance to move beyond theory and see the tools, technologies, and day-to-day realities of law enforcement across different eras. From vintage uniforms and early communication equipment to real case files and stories from the frontline, the museum shows how policing adapted to new crimes, new societal expectations, and new forms of evidence.

You’ll find exhibits exploring everything from early detective work to the rise of organised crime, forensic breakthroughs, and community policing. It highlights the successes, the failures, and the learning curves. For anyone studying criminology, the Lancashire Police Museum connects academic ideas to the real people and real decisions shaping law enforcement. It’s not just a historical collection - it’s a chance to understand how policing has changed, why it changed, and what those changes can teach us today.

Decorative stone paving in Williamson Park

Gallows Hill

Gallows Hill and the old execution routes surrounding Lancaster might look like peaceful parkland today, but they once formed the final journey for those sentenced to death at Lancaster Castle. For criminology students, this site offers a powerful reminder of how deeply intertwined crime and community life have always been.

Executions here were events that drew crowds, stirred local gossip, and shaped public attitudes toward crime. The walk from the castle to the execution site was a dramatic ritual in itself, complete with processions, final confessions, and the ever-present mix of dread and curiosity from onlookers. Studying this area shows how punishment functioned not just as a legal act, but as a social performance intended to reinforce order and morality. Today, exploring Gallows Hill is a stark reminder that ideas about punishment are always changing, and that past practices often reveal more about society than the crimes themselves.

The Golden Lion Pub

The Golden Lion may look like an ordinary traditional pub at first glance, but it has become part of Lancaster’s darker folklore thanks to its supposed connection to the city’s execution route. Local stories claim that condemned prisoners were sometimes allowed to stop here for a final drink on their way from Lancaster Castle to Gallows Hill. Whether every detail of the legend is true or not, the pub has cemented its place in the city’s collective memory of crime and punishment.

For criminologists, this spot highlights a fascinating aspect of criminal history: the way everyday places become part of wider narratives about justice. It shows how communities absorb stories of crime into their identity, retelling and reshaping them over generations. The Golden Lion becomes a gateway into thinking about how folklore emerges around dramatic events, and how those stories influence public views of the justice system. Even if the truth is blurred by time, the pub stands as a reminder that criminological history often lives on in the places we least expect – and can be accompanied by a drink!

Lancaster Maritime Museum

Lancaster Maritime Museum offers a different, but equally important, perspective on crime, focusing on the seafaring world, global trade, and the darker side of Britain’s maritime history. Housed in former warehouses by the River Lune, the museum traces Lancaster’s past as a bustling port involved in everything from shipbuilding to international commerce, including its role in the transatlantic slave trade. For criminologists, this opens up conversations about economic crime, state crime, exploitation, and how entire systems can be built on injustice.

Beyond the big historical themes, the museum also brings to life the everyday challenges of port cities: smuggling networks, illegal cargo, press gangs, drunken disorder, and the rough underbelly of dockside life. Exhibits on sailors’ lives, customs enforcement, and naval discipline help connect these stories to broader criminological concepts. Visiting the Maritime Museum encourages students to think about crime on a global scale - not just individual acts, but the economic and political forces behind them. It’s a space where local history intersects with international issues, showing how Lancaster’s waterfront played a role in shaping patterns of crime, power, and inequality.

Judges’ Lodgings

The Judges’ Lodgings is Lancaster’s oldest townhouse and once served as the official residence for the travelling Assize judges - the powerful figures who presided over the region’s most serious criminal trials. These were the private quarters of the very people who decided the fate of accused witches, murderers, thieves, and countless others brought before the Lancaster courts. The contrast between the luxury here and the grim conditions at the nearby castle prison tells a story about class, authority, and the power dynamics of criminal justice.

The building helps explain how the Assize system worked; a time when justice arrived in town only a few times a year, creating huge social events that shaped local life. Trials were not just legal procedures, they were spectacles that reinforced social order. The Judges’ Lodgings also shows how law and power were embedded in everyday life, from the ornate dining rooms where judges were entertained by local elites to the quieter spaces where they prepared their verdicts.