Kendal Friends Meeting House is a

Friends meeting house A Friends meeting house is a meeting house of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), where meeting for worship is usually held. Typically, Friends meeting houses are simple and resemble local residential buildings. Steeples, spires, and ...

of the

Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belief in each human's abili ...

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, in north-western England. There have been Quakers in Kendal since the 17th century when the town was visited by

George Fox George Fox (July 1624 – 13 January 1691) was an English Dissenter, who was a founder of the Religious Society of Friends, commonly known as the Quakers or Friends. The son of a Leicestershire weaver, he lived in times of social upheaval and ...

. The present meeting house was purpose-built in 1816 to replace the previous building used by local Quakers. Attendance at Sunday worship in 1816 numbered several hundred.

Architecture

The limestone building was designed by local architect Francis Webster. In the 1930s Stramongate School, a Quaker institution opposite the meeting house, closed. The building had housed Sunday school classes and it was decided to move them to the Meeting House, where Webster's

Georgian Georgian may refer to: Common meanings * Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country) ** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group ** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians **Georgian scripts, three scrip ...

design was modified to provide classroom accommodation on the 1st floor.

Quaker Tapestry

The building is the home of the Quaker Tapestry illustrating the history of Quakerism from the 17th century to the present day. Like the Bayeux Tapestry, the panels are

embroidered Embroidery is the craft of decorating fabric or other materials using a needle to apply thread or yarn. Embroidery may also incorporate other materials such as pearls, beads, quills, and sequins. In modern days, embroidery is usually seen on c ...

rather than being tapestry in the strict sense of the word. The tapestry opened in 1994 as a visitor attraction. It received a "Hidden Gem" award for 2020-21 from

VisitEngland VisitEngland is the official tourist board for England. Before 1999 it was known as the English Tourist Board and between 1999 and 2009 as the English Tourism Council. In 2003, it merged with the British Tourist Authority to form VisitBritain bef ...

Conservation

The meeting house has been designated a

Grade II* listed 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 ...

building.

References

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Grade II* listed buildings in Kendal Grade II* listed religious buildings and structures