The Shakespeare, Kendal

A fine pub and yet another one that's entered via an alleyway. A traditional interior the servery is centrally located and housed 6 handpumps. The real ales on offer were mainly bland nationals such as London Pride and Pedigree. A pool table is to one side of the bar and there is outside seating to the rear. A nice enough place and made forca pleasant pint.

Like many of Kendal's old buildings, the pub is accessed by a side door in the alley or "yard". The large bar has numerous hand pumps but only three beers were on at the time of my visit, which was, admittedly, a quiet Tuesday evening. I had the Bath Summer Hare, which was very good despite being a long way from home. The others were Fullers London Pride and Theakstons Old Peculier. It was a little disappointing to see no local beers from one or more of Cumbria's many independent breweries, but this is a minor gripe. There's a pool table in the front part of this long, narrow building, and it's placed skew-whiff to make the best use of the space available. I had quite a pleasant time here, but my experience would have been enhanced if "the UK's only 80's radio station" had suffered a catastrophic failure of its broadcasting equipment, allowing silence to reign; it gives me a frisson of excitement just thinking about the possibility.