Other Institutions [Kendal] [GAZ]

Public buildings:

New Biggin, in middle of Highgate, ‘shops’ built c.1500; demolished 1803. Market house built 1855 (used as public library from 1891; demolished 1909), replaced by new Market Hall, opened 1889

White Hall, built as a cloth exchange, rebuilt as assembly rooms in 1824-5. Moot Hall in Stricklandgate, replaced by Town Hall, converted 1858-9 from the former Whitehall assembly rooms.

House of Correction (Kendal’s town prison) built at northern end of the town, probably pre-1700, to replace the dungeon under the Moot Hall.  Rebuilt 1785; became the County Gaol after the closure of the gaol at Appleby in 1888; closed as a civilian prison 1894; site sold for redevelopment 1907. 

On the establishment of Westmorland County Council in 1889, Kendal (rather than the ancient county town of Appleby) became the seat of county government.  County Hall was built 1937-9.

Social welfare:

A poor house was built on Fellside in 17th century and another for the township of Kirkland, probably c.1740. From 1725-1768 Kendal’s workhouse was at Brownsword House, Stricklandgate.  Income received by the corporation from the enclosure of Kendal Fell in 1767 was used to build a new workhouse, opposite the House of Correction at the northern end of the town.  This subsequently became the Union Workhouse for the Kendal Poor Law Union from 1836. From 1948 to 1970 the workhouse buildings were used as the Kendal Green Hospital for the elderly.

Almshouses: Sandes Hospital, built 1659; endowed for 8 poor widows 1670. Dowker’s Hospital, endowed 1831; cottage almshouses built in Highgate,1833; demolished c.1960. Sleddal Jubilee Almshouses, Aynam Road, endowed by John Sleddal in 1887.  Howard Orphan Home for girls, at Stonecross, opened 1865; later used as a local authority old people’s home; closed 1990.

Cropper Memorial Hospital, Captain French Lane, built 1869-70, became Westmorland County Hospital; closed 1991 when new Westmorland General Hospital was opened on Burton Road.  Helme Chase Maternity Home, closed 1993.

Public Bath House, Allhallows Lane, 1863, with swimming baths added 1883.

Cultural life:

Mechanics Institute established 1824; moved to new premises on Highgate 1857.  The ‘Economic Library’, founded 1797, was merged with the Mechanics Institute.  The Oddfellows Hall, Highgate (now converted to housing), was established 1833 on the site of the Unicorn inn and taken over by the Mechanics’ Institute in 1857.  The Working Men’s Reading Association opened a Workmen’s Newsroom in the Market Place in 1843. A Christian and Literary Institute (similar in its objectives to the Mechanics’ Institute) was established in Kent Street in 1852.

Kendal Literary and Scientific Society, founded 1817, took over the museum (established by William Todhunter in 1796) in 1835 and established a museum and library in Stricklandgate House, which they leased in 1854.  The museum was moved to new premises (formerly a wool warehouse) adjacent to the Allen Technical Institute in 1918.  A second museum/gallery complex was established in the later 20th century in The Abbot Hall Art Gallery (opened 1962) and its adjacent Museum of Lakeland Life and Industry.

A subscription library, founded 1794, was taken over by the Kendal Literary and Scientific Society; the earliest public library was that opened in the Workmen’s Newsroom in 1847.  A free public library was established in the former Market Hall in 1891 and replaced by the present Library (the Carnegie Library) on a new site in Stricklandgate, which opened in 1909.

A playhouse (in what later became Working Men’s Institute, Market Place) was founded in 1758; moved c.1780 to ‘The Fold’, Stricklandgate.  A purpose-built theatre, built in the Woolpack Yard; known as the New Theatre until 1807 and the Theatre Royal thereafter, it was taken over by the Independent chapel in 1823.  Further theatres were built in the Old Shambles in 1828 and behind the Shakespeare Inn in 1829; the latter closed under pressure from nonconformists, 1834; it was subsequently used as a ballroom (latterly known as the Shakespeare Centre). 

St George’s Hall, Stramongate, built 1878, used for theatrical productions and as a cinema in early 20th century, becoming a bingo hall in the 1960s and finally being demolished in 1993.  A second cinema, the ‘Roxy’, opened in 1913 (and closed in 1950s); the Palladium in Sandes Avenue opened 1931 (closed 1989). Theatre returned to Kendal in 1993 when a new theatre was built in the Brewery Arts Centre, which had opened in 1972, converted from former brewery.