Canterbury - Old City

In the pedestrianized area of the Old City numerous timber framed buildings survive. An unbroken row of particularly fine houses, with typical overhanging upper floors, can be seen in the narrow and busy Mercery Lane.

A visit to the Canterbury Tales Museum on St Margaret's Street can be thoroughly recommended. As the name implies the museum is dedicated to Chaucer and his times.

The museum is one of Kent's most popular attractions. Visitors can participate in a mock-14th century pilgrimage from London to Canterbury. Commentaries available in Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese and Spanish.

Only the stump of the keep survives from Canterbury's 11th century Norman castle, situated on the southwest edge of the Old Town. Just to the east of the castle, a well preserved section of city wall skirts Dane John Gardens, named after the still unexplained mound/tumulus known as Dane John. Also in the Gardens are a memorial to Christopher Marlowe, and the "Invicta" (1830), a locomotive built by Robert Stephenson.

On the corner of Mercery Lane stands "The Chequer of the Hope", successor to the pilgrim hostel mentioned by Chaucer in the "Canterbury Tales" (only a fragment of the medieval original survives).

Anyone eager to learn more about the history of Canterbury should visit the Museum of Canterbury, in an imposing old buildings in Stour Street. On the way, Grayfriars, the remnants of a former Franciscan monastery founded in the 13th century, can be seen on the other side of the river.

The Rupert Bear Museum is also part of the Museum of Canterbury.

Coming out of Mercery Lane into Canterbury's High Street, note the Tudor "Queen Elizabeth's Guest Chamber" diagonally opposite, with its attractive pargetting.

Among those who lie buried in St Thomas' Cemetery is the novelist Joseph Conrad (1857-1924).

To the right, along Canterbury's High Street, past Eastbridge Hospital (founded about 1180, extended in the 17th century) and beyond the bridge over the Stour (with a good view of the picturesque old Weavers' Houses, the homes in the second half of the 16th century of immigrant Huguenot families), lies the Westgate (1375-81) with its round corner towers, portcullis and drawbridge. The impressive gateway now houses a history museum; there is a fine view of the cathedral from the top.