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Changing times

Kendal's newest town centre development is gathering pace. Work on the ambitious new vision to transform former Westmorland Gazette land and offices has moved up a gear after phase one of the multi-million pound scheme was completed this month.

The re-development, spearheaded by Eric Wright Group, one of the North West’s major construction and development companies, is about to move into its second phase.

Last week,around 80 staff transferred into their new home at 1 Wainwright’s Yard and the Gazette’s former home will now be demolished to make way for the rest of the development, including a new Booths supermarket, 12 new shop units and 21 apartments. The old Gazette offices and former Titus Wilson building will be demolished by October.

Work on a decked car park and a glittering new Booths is about to get under way – the shell of the store will be complete by spring 2004. A series of new shops and apartments will begin to take shape over the coming months and are set to be ready for occupation in May or June next year.

The old Stricklandgate was, by all accounts, a pretty fetid spot.Built some time in the early medieval period in the 12th or 13th century, historian John Marsh imagined the street was “unhygienic”, in keeping with the pre-plumbing, pre-health authority era. “It would have been rough, scruffy by our standards,” explained the Kendal Civic Society’s vice chairman. “Everything would have flowed down the gutters.They slaughtered animals in the main street and chopped them up in the main street. It wasn’t a very savoury place - nor was any European town.”

The road,as it was then,was a market hub and a through road or “gate” to the old parishes of Strickland Roger and Strickland Ketel. “It was laid out as a market street,a wide street with room for stalls on each side with a road down the middle,” said Mr Marsh. “Any sort of dealing between people would go on there... mainly farmers, dealing in sheep,wool, cows,meat,horses for use. Some of those uses had fairs of their own, for instance Damson Saturday.”

This trading hubbub persisted but,since it was not a main thoroughfare to anywhere of note,it also developed as a residential street. The well-to-do chose it as the spot for their town houses.The Stricklands of nearby Sizergh Castle were one of the most notable and established a residence where the post office is today.

“Most of the important people who had a home outside Kendal had a town house because it was a day’s journey into Kendal then,”explained Mr Marsh. Shops around the residences have come and gone ever since and,given the longevity of the street, it is perhaps unsurprising to learn that it has been connected with some of the town’s key moments in history.

The arrival of The Westmorland Gazette must rate a mention as one of Stricklandgate’s most enduring residents. It came on the scene in 1818 (as the slogan goes) as the Tory rag of Lord Lowther and stayed in the town, latterly at 22 Stricklandgate, undeterred by libel battles and a devastating fire in the 1930s that necessitated the construction of the buildings that have now been replaced with modern offices.

In 1824,John McAdam could be found on Stricklandgate carrying out the experiments that eventually led him to discover that essential of modern life - tarmac. He was the Turnpike Trust’s engineer at the time but his office of authority held little sway with contemporary Gazette readers.

Mr Marsh recalled a letter retrieved from the newspaper archives from someone who wished Mr McAdam would take his smelly tests out of the town and up Shap Fell. “There are quite a lot of important things that have gone on in Stricklandgate,”noted Mr Marsh.

The character of the street suddenly underwent a dramatic change when Sandes Avenue was created as part of the celebrations to mark Queen Victoria’s jubilee in the 1890s. The opening of the street at the foot of Stricklandgate was built to serve that great revolution of the Victorian era - the trains.It ran past Kendal Station on the avenue and brought substantial traffic through the street. Stricklandgate later become ‘trunked’ as the A6 and was truly the ‘gateway to the Lakes’. As Mr Marsh puts it: “The traffic problem in Stricklandgate started with motorised traffic when the A6 went through Kendal and Stricklandgate and it’s never really gone away".

The advent of traffic brings us to the heady days of the 80s when retail underwent its own revolution. It was time for the demise of town centre food stores and the advent of the car-friendly out-of-town superstores.

First to go was old-style grocers Liptons in March 1986,housed in what is now McDonalds.Then in December that same year Tescos departed from Highgate followed in February 1988 by the Co-Op Pricefighter store (gift shop Past Times now fills the spot).

Then,in November 1988,South Lakeland District Council approved Asda’s bid to develop the town’s first superstore just down the road from Westmorland General Hospital. Months later,in January 1989, Morrisons decided that Kendal was a town big enough for two supermarkets and submitted plans to develop on the old Westmorland County Showfield.

Predictably,in a repeat of the planning battles under way across the nation,councillors and traders were convinced that the arrival of Morrisons as well as Asda would do irreparable damage to Kendal’s established businesses and shops. The Morrisons’ planning bid was turned down but, just a few months later in April 1989,Environment Secretary Nicholas Ridley granted outline permission for the store,plus high-tech business units,apetrol station and football pitch.

The store eventually opened in October 1992 and was joined two years later by German cut-price superstore Aldi, which opened up next door.

Meanwhile,back in the town centre,another major food player was on its way out.Gateway announced the closure of its Library Road premises in January 1994. But there was a silver-lining to the announcement as Marks and Spencer revealed that it had designs on the site.

After years of gloomy forecasts about the desertion of the town centre,former chamber of trade president Albert Tague predicted that the M&S move would “turn the tables”on the out-of-town superstores.

“M&S could well have saved Kendal from a very dismal future,” said Mr Tague,whose optimism was mirrored by Library Road traders, who forecast an M&S-led trade boon. Through that time, big high street names were busy advancing into the auld grey town.

First came the much-anticipated £20 million Westmorland Shopping Centre on October 28,1988. It boasted the retail giants including Ratners, Principles and Our Price. Councillors expressed enthusiasm for the plans - eager to distract shoppers from the charms of Carlisle and Lancaster,to tempt them instead with Kendal’s model of the latest fashion for all-weather centres where stores nestled next to cosmopolitan cafes and convenient car parks.

It was soon joined by more shopping centres.First came Blackhall Yard in February 1989,then over the road Elephant Yard arrived on the scene with an official opening in October 1999 consolidating Stricklandgate as the commercial hub of the town.

The die was cast for the modern Kendal. While the street layout does still hark back to medieval times, today’s denizens have very up-to-the minute tastes.

And only last week there were signs that Stricklandgate could be about to round another corner with the possible pedestrianisation of the town centre as early as next summer.

The £1.1 million scheme would see pedestrian priority introduced between Library Road and Lowther Street. An expanded Booths supermarket on The Westmorland Gazette site is now the next step forward for Kendal,alongside more shop units to maintain its status as a market town where business gets done. It is an indication that everything comes full circle in the end. Superstores were meant to spell the end for the traditional town centre. Yet while the character of such areas has certainly moved with the times,they are by no means history.

Reproduced courtesy of The Westmorland Gazette
'Changing Face of Kendal', Friday, September 26, 2003

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