Maritime Museum

Lancaster's role in the 18th-century Atlantic trade, including the slave trade, told through the old Custom House

The Maritime Museum occupies the Custom House on St George's Quay, a fine Georgian building designed by Richard Gillow in 1764 — the same Gillow whose furniture workshop became the famous Gillows of Lancaster. The location is deliberate: this is where Lancaster's maritime trade was administered, and the museum takes that history seriously.

The centrepiece is Lancaster's role in the Atlantic slave trade, handled with directness and backed by documentary evidence. Lancaster was England's fourth-largest slaving port in the 18th century, and the museum names the ships, the merchants, and the human cost. Alongside this is material on the fishing trade, the Lancaster Canal, and Morecambe Bay.

St George's Quay itself is attractive — a Georgian stone waterfront with surviving warehouses — and worth a walk even if you skip the museum. Small admission charge; free for under-16s.

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A story
In the 18th century Lancaster was England's fourth largest slave-trading port. Between 1736 and 1807, Lancaster merchants dispatched around 200 slaving voyages, carrying an estimated 29,000 enslaved people across the Atlantic. The Custom House where profits were registered still stands on the quay.

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