This Georgian town, situated on the west coast of Cumbria, was one of the first post-renaissance planned towns in the country. The industries it was built on, shipping and minins, have now declined, but Whitehaven is never-the-less an attractive town.

The development of Whitehaven owes much to the Lowther family, it was Sir John Lowther, inspired by Christopher Wren's designs for rebuilding London after the Great Fire of 1666, who laid out the original grid system of streets and specified the type of houses to be built.