After studying art at the Slade School in London he produced several books on architecture, including Homes, Sweet Homes (1939), in which he coined the phrase 'stockbroker Tudor'. From 1939, and for many years he produced cartoons for the Daily Express, using his character Maudie Littlehampton to satirise upper-class preoccupations. It was his Grandfather that spent his childhood at Stock Hill House.

The Lancaster cartoon on the wall in the breakfast room (see below) is an original.