Castle Inn Kendal

Telephone: 01539 756933 – e-mail: castleinn@btinternet.com – Address: 13 Castle St, Kendal LA9 7AD

The origins of the Castle Inn are somewhat obscure. One online reference mentions 'information that the inn had been on Castle Street since the early 1700s'. This is contradicted by John Todd's map of Kendal, made in 1787, which shows Wildman Street, but no Castle Street - no buildings in the general area, just empty river side or open fields. The first written records only mention it from around 1834. James Gandy, a wealthy local wool merchant, sold the land for the building of Castle Street in 1826, and the first buildings started to appear in this area in the mid-1820s. John Wood's map of 1833 shows a number of buildings here, but if the Castle Inn was built at this time, there appears to be no written record.

In 1849, James Tate was listed in Borough records, as landlord. In 1858, Thomas Russell was landlord. An article from the Westmorland Gazette in 1882, notes 'In Peat Lane or Castle Street is an old established inn ...'. In 1897, the Castle inn was owned by Kendal brewers Messrs. Alexander and Sons Ltd. Many of the Castle Inn's regulars will remember the days when Des and Babs Airey were landlords, to be followed by Geoff and Christine. The pub suffered badly in the 2015 Storm Desmond, and Geoff gave up the tenancy after refurbishment in 2016. There followed a number of different landlords, none of whom managed to make a go of it under the ownership of Punch Taverns, and the pub finally closed in late 2018.

A group of concerned local residents formed CIKOFF (Castle Inn Kendal, Open For the Future), and applied for the pub to be registered as an Asset of Community Value (ACV). On March 23 2020, the Castle Inn was granted ACV status and will be listed on the council’s register. And then, at what turned out to be probably the worst possible time to buy a pub, Su and Chris Duxbury bought the freehold from Heineken. Three days later the UK Government instigated the COVID 19 lockdown, to begin two years of 'will they? won't they?' re-open the Castle Inn.

And the good news is - yes, they did re-open. You can read the full report of the purchase of the pub in the Westmorland Gazette from March 28th. 2020. Su and Chris, along with daughter Jodie and son Phillip, ran the Ring o' Bells in Kirkland, so have plenty of experience at running a successful pub. The Castle Inn is now home, and to borrow from Su's own comments: 'The Castle Inn will be our forever home, we have no desire to change it, develop it or anything.'