Modernist Delights

Lancaster Telephone Exchange (Rear), 2026

A beige, two-storey building with vertical panels and narrow windows stands behind a stone wall. A blue sign is attached to the wall, and a rubbish bin is visible in front. Some plants grow to the right. The sky is clear and blue.

Who wants to do the whole “O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?” from the balcony of the Lancaster Telephone Exchange with me?

30-32 New Street, Lancaster, 2025

A three-storey building with vertical windows and white railings. The ground floor houses THE BAG SHOP, GILLISONS, and a MARKET CORNER. Leafless tree branches frame the upper part of the photo under a partly cloudy sky.

Lloyds Bank, Lancaster, 2025

A Lloyds Bank branch with a modern stone façade and six white-framed windows above a green sign. Two cashpoints and a glass entrance door are at street level. The pavement is empty, and the sky is partly cloudy.

We’ve been here before.

1 Penny Street, Lancaster, 2025

A three-storey stone building with a LUSH Fresh Handmade Cosmetics shop on the ground floor. The upper floors have large, square windows and stained, weathered walls. A CCTV camera is mounted on the left. Bright blue sky overhead.

Corner building with modern architecture, featuring a LUSH cosmetics shop on the ground floor. Large windows display products inside. Other shops and a bank line the street. Blue sky, sunlight casting shadows, and festive lights are visible overhead.

A shopfront for LUSH, a handmade cosmetics shop, is in a modern, rectangular stone building. The large white sign displays LUSH over glass windows showing products. The street in front is empty, and sunlight illuminates the scene.

One of my favourite buildings in the city. The upstairs looks like it would make a perfectly pleasant flat, notwithstanding the fact it’s the busiest street corner in the town centre, and the smells emanating from below.

Marks & Spencer department store, Lancaster, 2025

A Marks & Spencer shopfront with a brown brick façade, arched upper windows, and large display windows below featuring Christmas-themed posters. The white sign above the entrance displays the shop name in bold black letters. Blue sky is visible above.

Preston railway station, 2026

A covered railway station platform with yellow safety lines. Three people wait: one walks, two sit on a bench. Signs show platforms 4 and 4C. Overhead glass panels let in daylight. Tracks and brick buildings are visible in the background. Trees line the area.

Railway symmetry on my day off.

Lancaster Delivery Office extension, 2025

A sunlit, old building with large, grimy windows, white panels, and a stone base lines a quiet street with bins and shadows. The sky is blue with clouds and a visible plane vapour trail.

Lancaster Telephone Exchange, 2025

A tan brick industrial building with large rectangular windows is shown. Several red and white vans are parked in front, with yellow and white parking lines on the ground. The sky is blue with scattered clouds. Signs and barriers are also visible near the entrance.

A stone wall outside a building has the words TELEPHONE EXCHANGE engraved on it. The wall is weathered, and buildings with tan and beige façades surround the area. There's a narrow passage and a barrier gate to the right.

A narrow alleyway between two beige buildings with large windows, a red and white security barrier blocks entry. Overhead, a white enclosed walkway connects the buildings. The scene is lit by daylight and appears industrial.

A two-storey beige stone building with nine front windows and a grey double door, metal railings, and a pavement in front. Shadows partially cover the facade. A blue sky with some clouds is visible above the building.

Telephone House, Lancaster, 2025

A boarded-up, beige four-storey office building labelled TELEPHONE HOUSE stands on a quiet street, with a yellow skip in front. The windows are broken or missing, and leafless trees line the pavement. The sky is partly cloudy and blue.

A five-storey, rectangular, tan-brick building with many windows, some boarded up, under a blue sky. A metal fire escape is attached. The building looks abandoned, and some lower windows are damaged. Neighbouring buildings and trees are partially visible.

A large, abandoned brick building with boarded-up lower windows, many broken upper windows, and overgrown vegetation in front. A metal fire escape is attached to the left side. The sky is blue with clouds.

A black SUV is parked beside a fenced building. The sun is setting behind a brick building with metal staircases. Shadows and reflections are visible on the windows, and the sky is partly cloudy with yellow and blue hues.

Telephone House, once home to a BT customer service centre, received planning permission for conversion into apartments in 2024, alas, the apartments did not materialise. Until then, it’s just a source of phone signal woes.

One more interesting tidbit, from the article above:

During the Cold War, the basement of Telephone House housed an emergency bunker to be used in the event of a nuclear strike on the Lancaster district. Although the bunker didn’t ‘officially’ exist, it was common knowledge amongst staff who worked there until the basement area was cleared towards the end of the ’80s.

Modernist Delights is a blog about modernist and brutalist architecture. Find out more.