The Armitt

The Armitt is an independent museum and library in Ambleside, Cumbria. It stands on land once belonging to St Martin’s College, built in 1997 from local slate and stone. The building houses two main collections: one devoted to Beatrix Potter’s watercolours and editions, the other to Kurt Schwitters’s late works. The library itself holds over eleven thousand books on local and natural history. It also keeps papers and portraits of figures who shaped the Lake District’s cultural life. The museum began in 1909 when Mary Louisa Armitt left money to celebrate Ambleside’s intellectual life. Its roots reach back to the Ambleside Book Society of 1828. In 1912 the library opened, and Canon Hardwicke Rawnsley, later a founder of the National Trust, wrote a celebratory poem. Beatrix Potter supported the library during her lifetime and bequeathed her natural history drawings and personal copies of her tales. The Armitt also recognises Sophia Armitt, Mary Louisa’s sister and a contributor to the early collections. Visitors find a permanent exhibition of Beatrix Potter’s watercolours alongside her printed books. A separate gallery displays Kurt Schwitters’s collages and drawings made in Ambleside. The reading room offers shelves of local history and biographies of Wordsworth, Ruskin, Martineau and others. The building’s slate walls and large windows frame views of the surrounding fells.