News

New phase of work starts at Lancaster Castle

31st August 2017

The Duchy of Lancaster is to start work on the next phase of restoration and renewal at Lancaster Castle on Monday 4thSeptember 2017.

An extensive programme of repair and conservation works will begin on site next month to open up the former prison kitchen yard and reveal more of the Castle’s historic buildings including the King’s Evidence Tower, Male Felons Tower and former prison hospital building.

The programme includes the removal and relocation of the existing Visitors Centre. As a result, the Ticket Office and Shop will be temporarily moved to the ground floor of A-Wing from 4th September and there will be no public tours of the Castle on Saturday 2nd or Sunday 3rdSeptember. The existing café facilities will also  close from the evening of Friday 1stSeptember and there will be no permanent catering facility available at the Castle from that date while a new catering and hospitality suite is constructed in the former ‘link block’ and along the rear exterior walls.

Commenting on the plans, Graeme Chalk, Head of Project Management for the Duchy of Lancaster, said: “Our primary focus is
on continuing to ensure that the Castle buildings are weather-proof and watertight. We are also committed to revealing and restoring as much of the Castle as possible and bringing these historic building back into use wherever possible. This next phase of development will do just that, creating a large new public open space, uncovering a series of arched colonnades along the front of the Victorian debtors’ workshops and establishing a state-of-the-art teaching and conference facility on site.”

The Duchy of Lancaster has already made significant investment in the restoration of Lancaster Castle since its return
to Duchy ownership at the end of 2011. Much of the work to date has concentrated on repairs and remedial works to the roofs, windows and stonework of the historic buildings facing onto the Castle courtyard. Recent additions also include the development of a new permanent Duchy office on the first floor of the Victorian debtors’ workshops and the restoration of the ‘Duchy Room’ at the base of the clock-tower.

This new phase of development is scheduled for completion in June 2019.

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