Petition calls for LUSU to rename The Sugarhouse The name is connected to the city’s history of the slave trade 2 months ago Students from Lancaster University have started a petition aimed at Lancaster University Students’ Union to rename the Student Union nightclub, The Sugarhouse. This is due to the name’s connections to Lancaster’s involvement in the transatlantic slave trade. The nightclub is located on Sugarhouse Alley and the site of a 17th century sugarhouse and boiling-house. This was used to process sugar and other produce grown and harvested on slave plantations in the West Indies. At the time, Lancaster was the fourth largest slave trading port in Britain and many other aspects of the city remained attached to this legacy.