The first town hall, know as the "moot hall" was built at the corner of the Market Place and Stricklandgate in 1591. It was a plain white building embellished over the centuries with a Venetian window, a turret clock, a bell cote and a flagpole. After the moot hall was deemed inadequate, the civic authorities acquired the current building, then known as the "White Hall", in 1859. This was a building which had been designed by Francis Webster and completed in 1827. It was so-called because the site had previously been occupied by an earlier White Hall, a building at which cloth was bought and sold, some of it for export to Virginia and other parts of the United States. The building was designed with a large Ionic orderloggia on the first floor with a pediment above on its western i.e. front elevation. The building was converted for use as a town hall by George Webster, the original architect's son, after which it was used as the local facility for dispensing justice as well as a meeting place for the municipal borough of Kendal. The conversion involved the construction of a courtroom to the rear of the building and police cells in the basement in 1859; a large clock tower, financed by a donation from John Wakefield of Sedgwick House, was added in 1861. Following the implementation of the Local Government Act 1888, which established county councils in every county, the building also became the meeting place for Westmorland County Council. The building was extended to the north, to the designs of Stephen Shaw and financed by a donation from Alderman William Bindloss, in 1893. The County Council moved out to their own facilities at County Hall in Stricklandgate in 1939. The town hall ceased to be the local seat of government when the South Lakeland District Council was formed in 1974. In February 2019South Lakeland District Council announced works costing £4.9 million to convert the town hall into a reception centre for both the Town Council and the District Council as well as a hub for small businesses. Works of art held in the town hall include Queen Catherine Parr's prayer book, a ceremonial sword presented to the town by King Charles I and a painting by George Romney depicting "King Lear in the Tempest Tearing off his Robes". Outside the building is a lump of stone known as the "Calling Stone", formerly part of Stricklandgate Market Cross, at which the accessions of new monarchs have historically been announced to the local people.
