Cultural Highlights
THEATRES & VENUES
Brewery Arts Centre
Highgate, Kendal LA9 4HE
T: 01539 725133
Not just a theatre but much more besides in this multi-purpose
venue for music, theatre, dance and comedy. It also has two cinema
screens, an exhibition space, plus a suitably bohemian bar and
restaurant. What’s more it attracts the sort of artists you might
be surprised to find playing a market town in Cumbria. Worth
checking out.
Theatre by the Lake
Lakeside, Keswick CA12 5DJ
T: 017687 74411
Hosting performances, concerts and exhibitions, the Theatre by
the Lake acts as a bit of a cultural hub for the north Lakes. Set
on the side of Derwent Water, it’s open all year round, but comes
into its own in the summer with a special theatre season and a
number of events in the Lake District Summer Music Festival.
www.theatrebythelake.com
GALLERIES
Abbot Hall Art Gallery
Kendal LA9 5AL
T: 01539 722464
The high-profile exhibitions at Abbot Hall have attracted
national attention since it started its innovative partnership with
the Tate in 2001. In recent years the gallery has hosted major
exhibitions by artists such as Lucian Freud, Bridget Riley, Euan
Uglow and Walter Richard Sickert and it has a gorgeous permanent
collecton of works by Reynold’s rival, George Romney, who undertook
his apprenticeship in Kendal. Housed in a lovely Georgian villa on
the banks of the river Kent.
www.abbothall.org.uk
Beatrix Potter Gallery
Main St, Hawkshead, Ambleside LA22 0NS
T: 015394 36355
For lovers of Jemima Puddleduck et al, gallery showing original
book illustrations by Beatrix Potter.
www.nationaltrust.org.uk
Blackwell
Bowness-on-Windermere LA23 3JT
T: 015394 46139
Originally built for the Manchester brewery magnate, Sir Edward
Holt, Blackwell is a superb example of a turn-of-the-20th century
Arts and Craft’s house. Now lovingly restored and open to the
public, it’s a living and breathing example of the distinctive
architecture of the period as well as housing a fantastic and
ever-growing collection of Arts and Crafts artefacts.
www.blackwell.org.uk
MUSEUMS
Dove Cottage & The Wordsworth Museum
Grasmere LA22 9SH
T: 015394 35544
Wordsworth’s picturesque former home on the outskirts of Grasmere
has been lovingly restored and features a whole host of the poet’s
original possessions - from his marital bed to his ice skates. A
stone’s throw from Dove Cottage is the new £3.15m Jerwood Centre,
home to the Wordsworth’s Trust’s 59,000 manuscripts, books and
prints relating to the English Romantics.
www.wordsworth.org.uk
Brantwood
Coniston LA21 8AD
T: 015394 41396
‘There is no wealth but life’ said John Ruskin, and you can
understand why he had such a great perspective on reality when you
visit his wonderfully-sited home overlooking Lake Coniston. The
house and gardens are open to the public and there’s an ongoing
programme of exhibitions and events to enlighten you as to the life
and work of the grand old man of Victorian art and letters.
www.brantwood.org.uk
Hill Top
Near Sawrey, Hawkshead LA22 0LF
T: 01539 436269
Seriously quaint 17th-century farmhouse where Beatrix Potter
wrote her stories and where Renée Zellwegger got to practise her
English accent again. A beautiful location and the only place to go
if you’re after a Mrs Tiggy Winkle sugar shaker.
www.nationaltrust.org.uk
Laurel and Hardy Museum
Upper Brook St, Ulverston LA12 7BQ
T: 01229 582292
Where else for a museum devoted to Laurel and Hardy but Stan
Laurel’s birthplace – the Cumbrian market town of Ulverston. Housed
in a tiny ramshackle building, the museum boasts the world’s
largest collection of Laurel and Hardy memorabilia, a dizzying
chaos (another fine mess?) of photos, figurines, letters and
artefacts. There’s also a tiny cinema showing the duo’s greatest
films.
www.laurel-and-hardy-museum.co.uk
Cumbria Pencil Museum
Main St, Keswick CA12 5NG.
T: 017687 73626
We kid you not. A quirky museum devoted to one of the region’s
oldest industries that developed around the naturally occurring
pure graphite that was mined out of the fells around Borrowdale.
More than you’ll ever need to know about the art of pencil
making.
www.pencils.co.uk
HERITAGE
Levens Hall
Sizergh, nr Kendal LA8 8AE
T: 015395 60321
Elizabethan stately home dating from the 14th century but worth
visiting primarily for its renowned topiary garden, the oldest in
Britain and the blueprint for the 17th century formal garden.
The on-site restaurant sells rib-sticking local fayre and it even
brews its own spiced Elizabethan beer.
www.levenshall.co.uk
Holker Hall, Gardens & Lakeland Motor Museum
Cark-in-Cartmel, Grange-over-Sands LA11 7PL
T: 015395 58838
Stately home that’s worth a visit for its 25 acres of justly famous
gardens plus its status as home to the Lakeland Motor Museum,
exhibiting a range of historic cars.
www.holker-hall.co.uk