Friends Meeting House

Today's the day ........................... for some Quaker history

This lovely building is the Friends Meeting House in Kendal. George Fox, founder of the Society of Friends (Quakers) visited Kendal in 1652 and won many converts. The first Meeting House was built on this site in 1689. Three extensions were made to the original building including a new room in 1703 'for the Woman Friends to hold their Meetings.

By 1814, the collection of alterations and extensions was in need of thorough repair, and it was agreed 'that to make the house sufficiently commodious would require an expenditure so heavy as to be inexpedient with an old building' and that it would be more acceptable to have a new one.

So in 1815, the old Meeting House was taken down and work started on the present building. Designed by Francis Webster, a well-known local architect, it was finished a year later in 1816 and was large enough to house the 850 or so people who might attend Meeting there ..................