The old Shakespeare Theatre, Kendal

The Shakespeare Centre in Yard 76 behind the Shakespeare Inn, Kendal, Cumbria.
Built in 1829 as a theatre at the end of Shakespeare Yard. The Shakespeare Theatre was advertised as featuring “A Powerful and Efficient Company from the Principal Theatres in the Kingdom”. Plays such as the famous melodrama, “Maria Marten and the Red Barn” were staged and the actor Edmund Keane played there. Both poverty and pressure from the Quakers, Prebyterians and Temperance groups, forced the theatre to close in 1834. The building subsequently found use as a ballroom, and was converted into a community centre in 1995.