The Principal, Kendal

A pleasant enough pub and not as rough as its near neighbour the George And Dragon. Lots of wood panelling and a wooden staircase to the right of the bar. It has a fairly small servery and there are 4 handpumps on the bar. As its a Twaithes house the ales were from their stable. I enjoyed my short time here.

This is a nice building on the market place, with wood panelling and a staircase leading to an upstairs room that has railings rather than walls around the stairwell, giving an airy feel to the interior. (The upstairs is available for private hire.) The pub has the atmosphere typical of market pubs, with a slightly rough edge and a take it or leave it attitude about both customers and staff. There are gambling machines and, there being no apparent dedicated space for smokers, a regular stream of people to or from the huddles around the front door. There are four hand pumps on the bar, with three Thwaites beers on offer: Bitter (now called Original), Wainwright and Lancaster Bomber. The person serving took several tries to get the beer to fit into the glass, resulting is a mountain of froth in the drip tray. The beer was OK in the end, but this wouldn't be my first choice of venue on my next visit to Kendal.

Called in midweek and had a good pint of Bomber,the pub was pretty quite but was starting to build up.