ABBOT Hall Art Gallery is back open for business after being damaged by floods over the weekend.

The Kendal gallery was forced to close after the River Kent burst its banks and flooded the bowling green and into the listed Georgian building, destroying the coffee house.

Jeannette Edgar, director of communications for Lakeland Arts - which owns Abbot Hall, Museum of Lakeland Life and Industry, and Blackwell Arts and Crafts House, at Bowness - said they were fortunate to be able to get experienced staff to the gallery soon after being alerted to the problem: She added: "Their immediate intervention secured the gallery. The collections in the upper galleries were never threatened by the flood waters which was restricted to the lower ground floor. Curatorial staff arrived at the gallery on Sunday morning once roads were open and spent the day assessing all the collections to check for any damage due to increased humidity levels. We would like to thank everyone who has helped to clean up, amazingly their hard work enabled us to open Abbot Hall and the museum again on Tuesday morning.

"We are getting a lot of offers of help, but what we really need now is support in the way of visitors and help from the media to tell everyone that Abbot Hall and the Canaletto: Celebrating Britain exhibition are open as usual. Please come and visit.

“A lovely lady came to Blackwell today to do her Christmas shopping, 'in a way of support,' she told us and several people came to Abbot Hall and joined us as members - their way of giving us support, it really was an appreciated gesture."

Elsewhere, Blackwell, which closed over the weekend due to poor road conditions, opened as usual on Monday - and the Museum of Lakeland Life and Industry did not suffer any damage but closed for a few days to release staff to help at the gallery. The museum opened again on Tuesday.

Abbot Hall Coffee House is closed until the New Year.

Canaletto: Celebrating Britain, open Monday-Saturday, 10.30am-4pm, Sundays, noon-4pm.