The County Offices, formerly Westmorland County Hall, is a municipal building in Stricklandgate,

Kendal Kendal, once Kirkby in Kendal or Kirkby Kendal, is a market town and civil parish in the South Lakeland district of Cumbria, England, south-east of Windermere and north of Lancaster. Historically in Westmorland, it lies within the dale of th ...

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumb ...

, England. The structure, which was the headquarters of

Westmorland County Council Westmorland County Council was the county council of Westmorland in north west England. It came into its powers on 1 April 1889 and was abolished on 1 April 1974. The county council was initially based at the Town Hall in Kendal and then, from 19 ...

from 1939 to 1974, is a Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

History

In the early 20th century the

town hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...

in Kendal was the meeting place of

. After finding that the town hall was too cramped to accommodate both the town council and the county council, council leaders decided to procure a dedicated county headquarters: the site they chose was open land on the corner of Stricklandgate and Busher Walk. The new building, which was designed by Verner O. Rees in the Neo-Georgian style and built by local builders, G. F. Martindale, was opened as "Westmorland County Hall" in 1939. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with nine bays facing onto Stricklandgate; the central bay featured a doorway on the ground floor with a rectangular

fanlight A fanlight is a form of lunette window, often semicircular or semi-elliptical in shape, with glazing bars or tracery sets radiating out like an open fan. It is placed over another window or a doorway, and is sometimes hinged to a transom. Th ...

containing the county

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central ele ...

; there was a

sash window A sash window or hung sash window is made of one or more movable panels, or "sashes". The individual sashes are traditionally paned window (architecture), paned windows, but can now contain an individual sheet (or sheets, in the case of double gla ...

on the first floor and a central

turret Turret may refer to: * Turret (architecture), a small tower that projects above the wall of a building * Gun turret, a mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon * Objective turret, an indexable holder of multiple lenses in an optical microscope * Mi ...

with a square clock at roof level. Internally, the principal room was the council chamber. A brass plaque commemorating council staff who had died in the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

was erected in the vestibule of the building after the war. After leaving the

Royal train A royal train is a set of railway carriages dedicated for the use of the monarch or other members of a royal family. Most monarchies with a railway system employ a set of royal carriages. Australia The various government railway operators of A ...

at Arnside railway station,

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. She was queen ...

, accompanied by the

Duke of Edinburgh Duke of Edinburgh, named after the city of Edinburgh in Scotland, was a substantive title that has been created three times since 1726 for members of the British royal family. It does not include any territorial landholdings and does not produc ...

, visited Westmorland County Hall in August 1956. An emergency control centre, which was intended to accommodate staff in the event of a nuclear attack, was installed in the basement of the building in the 1960s. Following the implementation of the

Local Government Act 1972 The Local Government Act 1972 (c. 70) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales on 1 April 1974. It was one of the most significant Acts of Parliament to be passed by the Heath Gov ...

and Cumberland County Council amalgamated to form a single county council known as

Cumbria County Council Cumbria County Council is the county council for the non-metropolitan county of Cumbria in the North West of England. Established in April 1974, following its first elections held the previous year, it is an elected local government body respon ...

in 1974. The building was renamed "Kendal County Offices" and continued to serve as the local register office and also as the Kendal and Whitehaven Archive Centre. Although the administrative offices of Cumbria County Council were at

Cumbria House Cumbria House is a municipal building in the Botchergate area of Carlisle, England. It is the headquarters of Cumbria County Council. History Throughout much of the 20th century, the administration of Cumberland County Council, England, Cumberl ...

in Botchergate in

Carlisle Carlisle ( , ; from xcb, Caer Luel) is a city that lies within the Northern England, Northern English county of Cumbria, south of the Anglo-Scottish border, Scottish border at the confluence of the rivers River Eden, Cumbria, Eden, River C ...

, formal meetings of the Council continued to be held at the County Offices in Kendal. A programme of major refurbishment works in the archive centre involving the creation of two new strong rooms was completed in spring 2019. In October 2019, the environmental movement,

Extinction Rebellion Extinction Rebellion (abbreviated as XR) is a global environmental movement, with the stated aim of using nonviolent civil disobedience to compel government action to avoid tipping points in the climate system, biodiversity loss, and the risk o ...

, held a demonstration outside the building. Cumbria is to be abolished as an administrative county in April 2023 with the eastern areas becoming part of the new unitary authority of

Westmorland and Furness Westmorland and Furness is a future unitary authority area in north-west England, which will come into being on 1 April 2023 on the abolition of Cumbria County Council, together with Cumberland. The council will cover the areas currently served ...

. The new Westmorland and Furness Council will meet at the County Offices.

References

{{reflist Grade II listed buildings in Cumbria Kendal K Government buildings completed in 1939