Abbot Hall Art Gallery

Abbot Hall Art Gallery stands in Kendal, a stone town house built in 1759 by Colonel George Wilson. It replaced an older Abbot’s Hall used by the head of St Mary’s Abbey in York before the Dissolution. The building is Grade I listed, with a symmetrical stone front, curved steps and a round-headed doorway. Inside, two-storey bays and Venetian windows frame the central spaces. The gallery opened to the public in 1962 after conversion from a private home. The gallery holds one of Britain’s finest collections of George Romney’s paintings and sketchbooks. Eighteenth-century views of Windermere by Philip James de Loutherbourg are shown alongside works by Daniel Gardner. Watercolours by John Robert Cozens, David Cox and J. M. W. Turner form a strong core of the collection. John Ruskin’s drawings and watercolours are also well represented. Modern holdings include sculptures by Barbara Hepworth and Barbara Hepworth, Jean Arp and Elisabeth Frink. Visitors find a Georgian town house with oak floors and tall windows. The Great Picture, a triptych of Lady Anne Clifford, hangs in the permanent display. A room is dedicated to Arthur Ransome’s desk and typewriter. Changing exhibitions bring Grayson Perry’s Julie Cope and Grayson Perry’s work to Kendal. The building’s restored interiors and garden terraces overlook the town’s cobbled lanes.