London (Fodor's 2012) - Fodor's [204]
As you might remember from high-school English classes spent studying Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, the height of Canterbury’s popularity came in the 12th century, when thousands of pilgrims flocked here to see the shrine of Archbishop (and later Saint) Thomas à Becket, murdered when four knights misunderstood King Henry II’s complaints about the “troublesome priest.” The humble ancient buildings that served as pilgrims’ inns still dominate the streets of Canterbury’s pedestrian center.
Dig a little deeper and there’s evidence of prosperous society in the Canterbury area as early as the Bronze Age (around 1000 BC). Canterbury was an important Roman city, as well as an Anglo-Saxon center in the Kingdom of Kent; it’s currently headquarters of the Anglican Church. The town remains a lively place, a fact that has impressed visitors since 1388, when Chaucer wrote his stories.
Essentials
Visitor Information Canterbury (01227/378100 | www.canterbury.co.uk).
EXPLORING CANTERBURY
You can easily cover Canterbury in a day. The 90-minute journey southeast from London’s Victoria Station leaves plenty of time for a tour of the cathedral, a museum visit or two, and (if the weather’s right) a walk around the perimeter of the old walled town. Canterbury is bisected by a road running northwest, along which the major tourist sites are clustered. This road begins as St. George’s Street, then becomes the High Street, and finally turns into St. Peter’s Street.
If you’re seeing several sights while in town, consider purchasing an Attractions Passport from the visitor center. It costs £20 and gives you admission to the Canterbury Cathedral, the Canterbury Tales, St. Augustine’s Abbey, and another museum of your choice.
On St. George’s Street a lone church tower marks the site of St. George’s Church—the rest of the building was destroyed in World War II—where playwright Christopher Marlowe was baptized in 1564.
The Canterbury Roman Museum is below ground level, in the ruins of the original Roman town. There’s a colorful restored Roman mosaic pavement and a hypocaust (the Roman version of central heating), as well as a display of excavated objects. Get a feel for what it once looked like via the computer-generated reconstructions of Roman buildings. | Butchery La. | CT1 2JR | 01227/452747 | www.canterbury-museums.co.uk | £3.10 | June–Sept., Mon.–Sat. 10–4:30, Sun. 1:30–4:40; Oct.–June, Mon.–Sat. 10–4.
Mercery Lane, with its medieval-style cottages and massive, overhanging timber roofs, runs right off Canterbury High Street and ends in the tiny Buttermarket, a square that was known in the 15th century as the Bullstake: animals were tied here for baiting before slaughter at market. Today it’s a town square surrounded by small bars and restaurants, and is often crowded with people visiting the cathedral.
The immense Christchurch Gate, built in 1517, leads into the cathedral close. As you pass through, look up at the sculpted heads of two young figures: Prince Arthur, elder brother of Henry VIII, and the young Catherine of Aragon, to whom he was betrothed. After Arthur’s death, Catherine married Henry. Her inability to produce a male heir after 25 years of marriage led to Henry’s decision to divorce her, creating an irrevocable breach with the Roman Catholic Church and altering the course of English history.
Fodor’s Choice | The massive heart of the town, towering Canterbury Cathedral was the first of England’s great Norman cathedrals. The mother church of worldwide Anglicanism and the seat of its head, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Cathedral Church of Christ Canterbury (its formal name) is a living textbook of medieval architecture.
The cathedral was only a century old, and still relatively small in size, when Thomas à Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury, was murdered here in 1170. An uncompromising defender of ecclesiastical interests, Becket had angered his friend Henry II, who supposedly exclaimed, “Who will rid me of this troublesome priest?” Thinking they were carrying out the king’s wishes, four knights burst