We checked 19 shops in Kendal and the south Lakes, from the 1657 Chocolate House to Grasmere Gingerbread, for hours and what they sell. Updated November 2026.

Kendal and the south Lakes have 19 independent shops worth a Christmas shopping trip in 2026, and this guide puts them in one place with opening hours, addresses and what each one sells. The 1657 Chocolate House on Branthwaite Brow, Herdy’s flagship shop on Stramongate, Low Sizergh Barn and Grasmere Gingerbread are the names most people land on. We checked every entry against the shop’s own website on 5 November 2026.

Most of the hours below are regular hours, not Christmas ones: only Grasmere Gingerbread had published winter hours when we checked, and Low Sizergh Barn, Friars and Westwood Books give their Christmas closing days. Small shops often change their hours close to Christmas, so check before a special trip.

Dates for the Christmas shopping diary

Friday 6 to Sunday 8 November: Holker Winter Market at Holker Hall, Cark-in-Cartmel, with tickets on sale now. Saturday 7 and Sunday 8 November: Indie Lane Christmas Market at the J36 Exhibition Hall, Crooklands, free entry. Both are on our Christmas markets near Kendal page.

13 to 15 and 20 to 22 November: Winter Craft Fair at Blackwell, Bowness-on-Windermere.

Friday 27 November: Kendal Christmas lights switch-on, late-night shopping and farmers’ market. Visit Kendal lists “late night shopping, entertainment and a special farmers’ market” alongside the lights, presented by Kendal BID. No start time had been published when we checked. Details on our switch-on page.

Friday 4 to Sunday 6 December: Kirkby Lonsdale Christmas Fair, with a chalet village in Market Square and the lights switched on at 6pm on the Friday. Our Kirkby Lonsdale Christmas Fair page has the full timetable.

Sunday 6 December: Kendal Christmas Celebration in Market Place, with Santa’s grotto, Christmas music and stalls. Times not yet published.

Every Wednesday and Saturday a fruit and vegetable market stall sets up on Stramongate, Visit Kendal says.

Parking. There is no free council car park in Kendal, Windermere, Ambleside or Kirkby Lonsdale. In Kendal, South Lakeland House on Lowther Street charges £1.50 all day on Sundays. Our parking guide has every tariff, and our Christmas trains and buses page has the holiday timetables.

Kendal town centre

1. The 1657 Chocolate House, Branthwaite Brow

The Chocolate House sits in a building it says was built in the 1630s, on the cobbled lane between Market Place and Finkle Street, and calls itself “internationally renowned as a haven for Chocoholics”. The tea room is closed, but the shop is open and sells handmade chocolates, either in pre-picked boxes or a box you fill yourself, plus a Christmas range.

Orders placed online before 12pm can be collected from the shop the same day.

Open Mon to Sat 10am to 4pm (shop; the tea room is closed)
Call 01539 740702
Address 54 Branthwaite Brow, Kendal, LA9 4TX
Website chocolatehouse1657.co.uk
Listing Our listing
Good for handmade chocolates, build your own box, click and collect

2. Herdy, Stramongate

Herdy, the Lake District gift brand, has what Visit Kendal calls its flagship store on Stramongate. Its website carries a Christmas collection and a run of Christmas stocking fillers, and a reader review on the shop page mentions buying a Herdwick wool piece there.

Herdy also has shops in Ambleside, Bowness and Grasmere, which open seven days a week; the Kendal shop closes on Sundays.

Open Mon to Sat 10am to 5.30pm
Call 01539 739202
Address 13-15 Stramongate, Kendal, LA9 4BH
Website herdy.com/pages/store-locations
Good for Lake District gifts, stocking fillers

3. Morgan Banks, Market Place

Morgan Banks is a family jeweller whose story goes back to 1935, when George Banks opened a shop on Lune Street, Preston. Peter Banks opened in Kendal on Finkle Street in 2009 and moved to 1 Market Place in 2015, rebranding as Morgan Banks in 2019.

The shop sells engagement rings and fine jewellery and stocks brands including ChloBo. “We’re still a family business at heart,” it says. It does not publish opening hours on its website, so phone ahead.

Call 01539 722333
Address 1 Market Place, Kendal, LA9 4TN
Website morganbanks.co.uk
Good for jewellery, engagement rings, family business since 1935

4. Armstrong Ward, Wainwright’s Yard

Armstrong Ward calls itself an “independent lifestyle shop” with “two floors of curated homeware, bespoke furniture, fashion, toys and gifts for all”, just off Stricklandgate in Wainwright’s Yard. It says finds from around the world sit alongside British brands and smaller makers and artisans.

Visit Kendal lists it among the yard’s shops with Booths and Lakeland Leather. The shop’s website gives no regular hours, so check its social pages or phone before a trip.

Call 01539 720400
Address 8 Wainwrights Yard, Stricklandgate, Kendal, LA9 4DP
Good for homeware, toys and gifts, fashion

5. Coolcrafting, Market Place

Coolcrafting sells yarn, dressmaking patterns and fabric and haberdashery from Market Place, and Visit Kendal names it among the shops on Branthwaite Brow and Market Place. Its 2026 Christmas catalogue is out: 40 pages of gift ideas “from watercolours to gentle basketry, simple illustrated papercuts to cute crochet”.

It can be downloaded free from the website, or an A5 printed copy added to an order.

Open Mon to Sat 9.30am to 5pm
Call 01539 724099
Address 40 Market Place, Kendal, LA9 4TN
Website coolcrafting.co.uk
Good for gifts for makers, yarn and fabric, free Christmas catalogue

6. The Antiques Emporium, Dockray Hall

The Antiques Emporium is a large antiques, vintage and retro centre on the Dockray Hall estate, north of the town centre, with more than 50 traders. It says it is open seven days a week, including bank holidays, with free parking and no entry fee.

Stock runs from antiques and furniture to vinyl and retro pieces, and it is the local stockist for Frenchic paint. Its October 2026 blog makes the case for a hallmarked silver bookmark or a set of 1960s crystal glasses as a Christmas present.

Open daily from 10am, including bank holidays
Address Unit 8, Dockray Hall, Kendal, LA9 4RU
Website theantiquesemporium.co.uk
Good for antiques and vintage gifts, free parking, open Sundays

Just outside Kendal

7. Low Sizergh Barn, Sizergh

Low Sizergh Barn is an organic dairy farm south of Kendal whose shop fills three floors of a 17th-century barn: the farm shop, plus craft, gift and clothing galleries upstairs. It describes it as “a treasure trove of goodies for everyone”, from home-grown vegetables to ceramics by local artists.

A Christmas order form is on the website. The shop also has an Elf Chloe trail for children.

Dogs are welcome outside but not in the shop or cafe.

Open daily, shop 9am to 5.30pm; cafe 9am to 5pm; closed Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year's Day
Booking Christmas food orders on the website
Call 01539 560426
Address Low Sizergh Barn, Sizergh, Kendal, LA8 8AE
Website lowsizerghbarn.co.uk/shopping-at-low-sizergh-barn
Listing Our listing
Good for farm shop, local crafts and gifts, Christmas orders, children's trail

8. Plumgarths Farm Shop, Crook Road

Plumgarths is an independent, family-run farm shop just off the A591 north of Kendal, built around a traditional butchery counter. Its history, it says, “stretches back over a century” to when the owner’s great-grandfather delivered milk into Kendal by horse and cart.

It sells local and speciality foods alongside the meat, and Christmas food orders are taken through the website.

Open Mon to Sat 8.30am to 5pm; closed Sunday
Booking Christmas food orders on the website
Call 01539 736300
Address Crook Road, Kendal, LA8 8QJ
Website plumgarths.co.uk
Good for butchery counter, Christmas meat orders, local food

Windermere and Bowness

9. Christmas on the Lakes, Bowness-on-Windermere

Christmas on the Lakes calls itself “the original all year-round Christmas shop in the heart of The Lake District”. It is family-owned and run by Chris and Carmen Hunt, who say they have twenty years “under our Santa belt” and source decorations and gifts from around the world.

It sells tree decorations, traditional ornaments and Christmas gifts, and runs a Santa letter box on its website. Its website does not publish opening hours.

Call 01539 422210
Address 59 Quarry Rigg, Bowness-on-Windermere, LA23 3DU
Website christmasonthelakes.com
Good for tree decorations, ornaments, open all year

Ambleside and Grasmere

10. The Book Brewery, Lake Road, Ambleside

The Book Brewery is an independent bookshop, coffee shop and wine bar in Kent House on Lake Road. It was opened by Chris and Emma, who met in an Oxfam bookshop in Guildford, in Chris’s home town of Ambleside.

It describes “a thoughtfully curated selection of books and bookish gifts”, and you can ask either owner for a personal recommendation. It opens late, to 7pm on Fridays and Saturdays.

Open Mon to Thu 9.30am to 6pm; Fri and Sat 9.30am to 7pm; Sun 10am to 6pm
Address Kent House, Lake Road, Ambleside, LA22 0AD
Website thebookbrewery.co.uk
Listing Our listing
Good for books and bookish gifts, coffee, wine bar, open late

11. Friars, Market Place, Ambleside

Friars is a chocolate and confectionery shop and “an independent family company since 1927”, with a shop on Market Place in Ambleside. Its Christmas range runs to chocolate tree decorations, advent calendars, hampers, vegan Christmas chocolate and Christmas alcohol.

It says it is closed only on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day. Its store page gives the Ambleside shop a Keswick postcode, so we have left the postcode off.

Open Mon to Sat 9.30am to 5.30pm; Sun 10.30am to 5.30pm; closed Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year's Day
Address Market Place, Ambleside
Website friars.co.uk
Good for chocolate, Christmas hampers, advent calendars

12. Grasmere Gingerbread, Grasmere

Victorian cook Sarah Nelson invented Grasmere Gingerbread in 1854, and the Grasmere shop still bakes it daily to what it calls a secret recipe, “a cross between a biscuit and a cake”. Alongside the gingerbread it sells gift hampers and ginger-themed conserves, chocolates, toffee and rum butter.

It has published winter hours. A second shop in Hawkshead closes on Mondays and Tuesdays from 9 November to 27 December.

Open daily 9.15am to 5pm from 2 November 2026 to 3 January 2027 (normally to 5.30pm)
Call 015394 35428
Website grasmeregingerbread.co.uk/shop-opening-times-location
Good for local food gifts, hampers, open daily, second shop in Hawkshead

Hawkshead

13. Hawkshead Relish, The Square

The Hawkshead Relish Company is, in its own words, “an artisan producer of award winning preserves” based in Hawkshead, and its shop sells the company’s chutneys, jams, relishes and ketchups. Its bestseller is a dark farmhouse chutney with dates, prunes, apricots and ginger.

The company says it won Gold at the 2025 Free From Christmas Awards, and its website has a Christmas and seasonal range.

Open 9.30am to 5pm
Call 015394 36614
Address The Square, Hawkshead, LA22 0NZ
Website hawksheadrelish.com
Good for chutneys and preserves, food gifts, Christmas range

14. The Honeypot, Market Square

Fiona Wilson and her family have run the Honeypot deli for more than 20 years, it says, continuing “over 100 years tradition of retailing food from this 17th century building”. Fiona sources from small local producers, and the shop is “bursting” with preserves, chutneys, oils, charcuterie, pies, puddings, teas, coffees and more than 40 cheeses.

It also makes up bespoke hampers.

Open daily 9am to 5.30pm
Call 015394 36267
Address Market Square, Hawkshead, LA22 0NZ
Website honeypothawkshead.com
Good for deli, more than 40 cheeses, bespoke hampers

Kirkby Lonsdale and Lupton

15. Bath House, New Road, Kirkby Lonsdale

Bath House makes its perfumes, natural skincare and home fragrance near Sedbergh and sells the full collection from a shop on the corner of Kirkby Lonsdale’s Market Square, 11 miles from its making rooms. For Christmas 2026 it has a limited-edition “Home For Christmas” range of gift sets, plus gifts under £35 and stocking fillers.

It has a second shop under The Archway on Market Place, Ambleside (015394 33362), with the same hours.

Open Mon to Sun 10am to 5pm
Call 015242 73189
Address 1 New Road, Kirkby Lonsdale, LA6 2AB
Website thebathhouseshop.co.uk/pages/kirkby-lonsdale-store
Good for perfume and skincare gifts, Christmas gift sets, second shop in Ambleside

16. Sienna, Main Street, Kirkby Lonsdale

Sienna has sold designer jewellery on Main Street for more than 20 years, it says, carrying “stylish contemporary jewellery by designers from all over the UK and Europe”. Most pieces are sterling silver, many using recycled silver, with freshwater pearls and precious and semi-precious stones.

It says many designs are exclusive to the area, and it offers VIP appointments outside normal hours.

Open Mon to Thu 10am to 4pm; Fri and Sat 10am to 5pm; Sun 11am to 4pm
Call 015242 72121
Address 65 Main Street, Kirkby Lonsdale, LA6 2AH
Website sienna-jewellery.com
Good for designer jewellery, silver and pearls, appointments outside hours

17. Kitridding Farm Shop, Lupton

Kitridding is “an award-winning family business” selling native-breed, traditionally butchered meat from its own farm near Kirkby Lonsdale, with a tearoom alongside the shop. It says it oversees the whole process “from happy animals to mouthwatering food”, and it also takes orders.

The farm is at Lupton, between Kendal and Kirkby Lonsdale, and the shop and tearoom keep the same hours: Thursday to Sunday only.

Open Thu to Sun 9.30am to 4pm; closed Mon to Wed; tearoom last orders 2.30pm
Call 01539 567484
Address Kitridding Farm, Lupton, near Kirkby Lonsdale, LA6 2QA
Website kitriddingfarmshop.co.uk
Listing Our listing
Good for farm-reared meat, tearoom, open Thursday to Sunday

Cartmel

18. Cartmel Cheeses, Unsworth’s Yard

Cartmel Cheeses sources “the finest handmade cheeses, often from small-batch, raw milk producers” and matures them itself. It supplies restaurants including L’Enclume and Rogan & Co in Cartmel.

The shop is in Unsworth’s Yard, off the village square, and also sells deli products. Its Friday and Saturday evening pizzas finished for 2026 on 31 October.

For presents going further afield, it ships mail orders Monday to Thursday, free on orders over £60.

Open Mon to Sat 9.30am to 5pm; Sun 10am to 4.30pm
Call 015395 34307
Address 1 & 2 Unsworths Yard, Cartmel, LA11 6PG
Website cartmelcheeses.co.uk
Good for farmhouse cheese, deli, mail order

Sedbergh

19. Westwood Books, Long Lane

Westwood Books has “a stock of over 70,000 titles”, antiquarian, secondhand and new, in a former factory that was once the town’s cinema and village hall. Mark and Evelyn Westwood moved from Hay-on-Wye and opened it at Easter 2006, as Sedbergh set out to become England’s book town.

It has a small car park behind the shop and two public car parks nearby. Only guide and assistance dogs are allowed inside.

Open daily 10.30am to 4pm, November to March; closed Christmas Day
Call 015396 21233
Address Long Lane, Sedbergh, LA10 5AH
Website westwoodbooks.co.uk
Good for secondhand and antiquarian books, open daily, car park

How we chose

We started from the shops listed in OpenStreetMap and by Visit Kendal across Kendal, Windermere, Ambleside, Hawkshead, Kirkby Lonsdale, Cartmel and Sedbergh. We kept independent shops that sell things people buy as presents and that publish what they sell, where they are and how to reach them. Every entry was checked against the shop’s own website on 5 November 2026, and nothing here is paid for. We left out shops whose websites were down or gave no useful detail, so the list is not complete. Run a shop that should be here, or spot something that has changed? Email newsdesk@kendalnews.co.uk. Taken a good photograph of any of these places? Email it to newsdesk@kendalnews.co.uk and we will add it with your name as the credit.

For the rest of the season, see Christmas markets near Kendal, Christmas dinner in Kendal, Father Christmas and Santa’s grottos, Winter at Sizergh, what’s on in Kendal this month and things to do in Kendal. More local shops are in the Kendal directory.

Frequently asked questions

Is there late night Christmas shopping in Kendal in 2026?

Yes. Visit Kendal lists late-night shopping and a special farmers’ market alongside the Christmas lights switch-on on Friday 27 November 2026, presented by Kendal BID. No start time had been published when we checked on 5 November. Kendal BID’s Christmas Celebration, with Santa’s grotto and stalls, follows on Sunday 6 December in Market Place.

Which shops near Kendal are open on Sundays before Christmas?

Low Sizergh Barn, the Antiques Emporium at Dockray Hall, the Book Brewery and Friars in Ambleside, Grasmere Gingerbread, the Honeypot in Hawkshead, Bath House and Sienna in Kirkby Lonsdale, Cartmel Cheeses and Westwood Books in Sedbergh all publish Sunday hours. In Kendal town centre, Herdy, the 1657 Chocolate House, Coolcrafting and Plumgarths are closed on Sundays.

Where can I buy local food gifts and hampers near Kendal?

Low Sizergh Barn and Plumgarths both take Christmas food orders. The 1657 Chocolate House on Branthwaite Brow sells handmade chocolates by the box, Grasmere Gingerbread sells gingerbread and hampers in Grasmere and Hawkshead, Hawkshead Relish sells its own chutneys and preserves, and Cartmel Cheeses in Unsworth’s Yard stocks farmhouse cheeses.