EPW002092 ENGLAND (1920). Lancaster Castle and environs, Lancaster, 1920

Lancaster prison’s female wing, one of the few remaining examples of the Panopticon design conceived by Samuel Bentham and promoted by Jeremy Bentham from the late 1700’s. The Panopticon principle is that a small number of supervisors can oversee a large amount of activity albeit in a factory, prison, hospital, asylum etc, by being positioned in a central location from which all activity is visible. ‘…the Female Penitentiary, designed by Joseph Gandy and built between 1818 and 1821, next to the Female Felons’Tower of 1792/3. The Female Penitentiary is a particularly interesting design for a prison, very different from the ‘Pentonville’ style of cells in two long rows facing an open area where prisoners can meet. This style of prison can be found in the two floors of A Wing of Lancaster Castle, the Male Penitentiary of the mid-1800s. The female Penitentiary, in contrast, comprises five floors, the basement for stores, ground floor for offices and hospital and above these four floors each with nine cells, these being arranged in a fan-shape.’ From LANCASTER CASTLE’S FEMALE PENITENTIARY, Lancaster Civic Vision Guide 118. Text – Gordon Clark. Published by Lancaster Civic Vision (2023). https://www.lancastercivicsociety.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Lancaster-Castles-Female-Penitentiary.pdf https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panopticon

Lancaster Castle and prison. Records of the castle's use as a prison go back to 1196. After continual use during the 18th and 19th Centuries, the prison was closed in 1916. However, in 1955 HM Prison Lancaster was opened on the site and continued until closure in 2011. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancaster_Castle

Glasson Dock branch curving off

Lancaster Castle station

Greyhound Bridge.

Midland Railway loco shed.

Town Hall, Lancaster, 16/07/2015

Dalton Square, Lancaster, 16/07/2015

Lancaster Baptist Church, 16/07/2015

Lancaster City Museum, 16/07/2015

Royal King's Arms Hotel, Lancaster, 16/07/2015

Green Ayre Station

what are these gantries for if rail lines were not electrified until the 1960s?