There is no free council car park anywhere in Kendal. All day costs £8.10, or £1.50 on a Sunday at South Lakeland House and £1.40 if you buy before 7am.
Westmorland and Furness Council lists 66 car parks in its directory. Six are labelled free parking, and not one of those six is in Kendal, Windermere, Bowness, Ambleside, Grange-over-Sands or Kirkby Lonsdale. They are at Kirkby Stephen, Alston and Dalton-in-Furness.
So the question in Kendal is not where to park free. It is which of the thirteen council car parks is cheapest for how long you are staying, and the answer moves by a factor of five depending on the day and the hour.
All prices below are from the council’s own car park pages, checked on 26 August 2026.
What each Kendal car park charges
| Car park | Spaces | 1 hour | 4 hours | All day |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sandes Avenue | 20 | 70p | £1.40 | £1.50 |
| Kendal Snowsports Club, Canal Head | 45 | n/a | n/a | £1.60 |
| South Lakeland House, Sunday | 194 | 70p | £1.40 | £1.50 |
| South Lakeland House, Mon to Sat | 194 | £2.20 | £5.20 | £8.10 |
| Blackhall Road | 81 | £2.20 | £5.20 | £8.10 |
| Westmorland Shopping Centre | 629 | £2.20 | £5.20 | £8.10 |
| Library Road, Stricklandgate | 49 | £2.20 | £5.20 | £8.10 |
| Highgate (Bowman) | 17 | £1.80 | £5.20 | £8.10 |
| Parish Church | 73 | £1.80 | £5.20 | £8.10 |
| Peppercorn Lane | 48 | £1.80 | £5.20 | 4 hour limit |
| Dowker Lane | 82 | £2.20 | £5.20 | 4 hour limit |
| Wainwrights Yard | 20 | £1.80 | £5.20 | 4 hour limit |
| Brewery Arts Centre | 46 | n/a | £5.50 | £12.00 for 24 hours |
| County Hall, Busher Walk | n/a | £2.00 | £5.70 | £8.50 |
Most of them charge from 8am to 6pm, seven days a week including bank holidays. Motorcycles park free everywhere except the Westmorland Shopping Centre, which has no motorcycle bays at all.
The five things that actually save money
1. Sunday at South Lakeland House costs £1.50, not £8.10. The multi-storey on Kent Street runs a separate Sunday tariff: 70p for an hour, £1.40 for four, £1.50 all day. That is the same price as Sandes Avenue and less than a fifth of the Monday to Saturday rate for the identical bay. Levels 1 and 2 open at 8.30am on Sundays and bank holidays and lock at 5.30pm. Level 3 is open all day, every day. There is a 1.88 metre height limit. (South Lakeland House)
2. Buy before 7am at Blackhall Road and all day costs £1.40. Not £8.10. The early ticket has to be bought before 7am, which suits a commuter and nobody else. (Blackhall Road)
3. The Westmorland Shopping Centre has the same early bird, with a wider window. £1.40 all day if the ticket is bought between 7am and 9am. With 629 spaces it is by far the largest car park in the town. It is pay on exit through barriers, with a 1.8 metre height restriction at the entrance, and it has a free cycle hub with ten racks, lockers and two changing rooms. Keys are at the parking office on the ground floor. (Westmorland Shopping Centre)
4. Sandes Avenue is £1.50 all day, every day, with no early ticket needed. It has only 20 spaces, which is why it is not better known. (Sandes Avenue)
5. Kendal Snowsports Club at Canal Head is £1.60 all day. 45 spaces, 7am to 7pm. It is open seven days a week from Easter Sunday to 15 September, then Monday to Friday only for the rest of the year. Card and phone payment only, and permits are not valid there. (Kendal Snowsports Club)
Traps worth knowing
- Parish Church starts charging at 6am, two hours earlier than every other Kendal car park. It is also one where council parking permits are not valid.
- Wainwrights Yard does not accept council permits either.
- Peppercorn Lane sits next to a car park the council does not run. The Abbot Hall car park between Abbot Hall Gallery and the Museum of Lakeland Life is reached through Peppercorn Lane, and the council warns you to make sure you buy a ticket at the correct machine.
- County Hall shuts to the public on weekdays. Areas 1 and 2 are permit holders only Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. The public can use them on Saturday, 8am to 6pm, and Sunday and bank holidays, 1pm to 6pm. Area 5, the lower level behind the building, can flood in extreme weather.
- County Hall’s published tariff and its parking order disagree. The council’s web page lists £2.00 for an hour up to £8.50 all day. The parking order quoted in the council’s own August 2026 variation notice runs from £1.20 for an hour to £6.00 all day, unchanged since 2020. See our report on the County Hall parking notice.
- Blue Badge parking at County Hall is being withdrawn. The same notice would remove Areas 1, 2 and 4 from the parking order, ending weekend pay and display and the free three hour Blue Badge stay in those bays.
Blue Badge parking, and the clock disc you need
In most Kendal car parks a Blue Badge gets you one hour free on top of the time you buy, but only if you also display a clock disc set to your arrival time. Without the disc the concession does not apply.
Three car parks work differently:
- Brewery Arts Centre: three hours free, then the normal tariff.
- County Hall: three hours free, subject to the notice above.
- Kendal Snowsports Club: no concession at all. Normal tariff applies.
The same is true just up the road at Miller Bridge in Ambleside, where the council states plainly that normal charges apply to Blue Badge holders.
On street, a Blue Badge lets you park without a time limit in disc zones, resident permit bays and limited waiting areas, and for up to three hours on single or double yellow lines, except where loading is banned or emergency services need access. A clock disc is still needed where a time limit applies.
Where to get a clock disc in Kendal: South Lakeland House, Lowther Street, LA9 4DQ. That is the only Kendal address the council lists, though Ambleside has ten shops that stock them and Milnthorpe has one. You can also email Customer.Services2@westmorlandandfurness.gov.uk and they will post one, or take one from a Civil Enforcement Officer on patrol. An unaltered handwritten note showing your arrival time is accepted. A note saying “working at premises” is not. (Short stay disc parking)
Permits, passes and season tickets
Annual permits from 1 April 2026:
| Permit | Cost | Covers |
|---|---|---|
| Outside the Lake District National Park | £591.80 | Every Kendal car park, plus Grange, Kirkby Lonsdale, Milnthorpe and Ulverston |
| Lake District National Park only | £591.80 | Ambleside, Bowness, Grasmere and Windermere |
| All areas | £658.90 | Both of the above |
| Business (all areas) | £788.70 | Same car parks, one paper permit, not registration specific |
| Milnthorpe only | £305.80 | Park Road and Beetham Road |
If you only ever park in Kendal, the “outside the National Park” permit covers every council car park in the town and saves £67.10 against the all areas permit. Permits are digital, run for 12 months from purchase, and are bought through MiPermit. A monthly option exists if you tick auto renew.
Two conditions that are easy to miss. The Westmorland Shopping Centre needs a Westmorland access permit alongside your council permit. Permits do not work at Parish Church, Wainwrights Yard or the Snowsports Club at all. (Parking permits in South Lakeland)
County Hall has its own permit: £34.83 a month or £417.90 a year, valid only there. The council does not send renewal reminders.
Contract spaces are full. A single contract bay at Highgate (Bowman) costs £890, and the council says it is not accepting new applications anywhere in South Lakes because every bay is taken.
Season tickets are not sold in Kendal. The council offers six and twelve month season tickets in Appleby, Penrith and Barrow only.
Short stays: a 3 day pass is £23.80 and a 7 day pass is £46. You can only buy them from a pay and display machine with a green logo on the side, not online and not in advance. They cover most Kendal car parks, and expire at the same time of day three or seven days later. (3 and 7 day passes)
Resident on-street permits last a year and renew on an email if nothing has changed, with new permits issued within five days. The council does not publish a price for them anywhere on its website, so ask parking.southlakes@westmorlandandfurness.gov.uk before you budget for one.
Station parking: Oxenholme is the expensive option
Oxenholme Lake District is the main line station for Kendal, and its two car parks are run by Avanti West Coast rather than the council. There are 145 spaces between them, two of them accessible.
- Daily: £12.50.
- Saturday and Sunday: £5.50.
- Monthly £166, three monthly £374, annual £1,200.
A day at Oxenholme therefore costs more than a day in any council car park in Kendal, and more than eight times the £1.50 Sunday rate at South Lakeland House. Figures from National Rail’s station page.
Kendal’s own station, on the Windermere branch, has a car park of 12 spaces. No charge is published for it.
If you get a ticket
Penalty Charge Notices come at two rates:
- Higher rate £70, reduced to £35 if you pay within 14 days. This covers parking on yellow lines, in a permit bay without a valid permit, in a restricted area of a car park, or in a loading area without loading.
- Lower rate £50, reduced to £25 if you pay within 14 days. This covers overstaying, not displaying a ticket, straddling a bay, parking in a closed car park and parking in a disc zone without a disc.
Miss the 14 days and the discount is gone. (Types of fines and charges)
More Kendal local information
Kendal bin collection days covers the bank holiday shift and the garden waste subscription. Kendal council tax bands has the full A to H table. Kendal roadworks and travel tracks closures and diversions across the town.
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