Our city burgers are demanding more room

Canterbury is evidently on the cusp of becoming the burger capital of the South East.

Alberry’s has a burger kitchen, there are gourmet burger joints opening in St Peter’s Street and Burgate and an American diner is going into the building that had been the Quex Barn.

Perhaps that sign off the slip road from the A2 at Harbledown should read: “Welcome to Canterburgery.”

If you’ve ever been on a train travelling through the county and spotted an advert imploring you to “Visit Kent”, you may have come to the same conclusion that I did. Namely, that you are already living in Kent and therefore have no reason to visit, or you’re on a train going into Kent and are already visiting.

A friend who runs a small Canterbury hotel recently recalled a story involving an American couple who turned up late and asked for a room, even though they hadn’t booked.

They told him they had been staying in Margate but had decided suddenly to skip town.

Curious, the hotelier asked why.

“Well, we were enjoying the place and didn’t really mind the vomit we found on our hire car one morning.

“But when someone got stabbed in the middle of the day just up the road, we decided it might be time to move on.”

If you walk around Canterbury’s Old Tannery housing development, you’ll notice that the streets have names that hint at its leather-tanning past.

There’s Creine Mill Lane North, Drying Shed Lane and The Ropewalk.

It reminded me of the street names in East Cheam, the home town of Tony Hancock in the Hancock’s Half Hour radio and TV shows.

There was Canal Street, Oil Drum Lane, Abattoir Gardens and, of course, Railway Cuttings, where Hancock lived variously with Sid James, Bill Kerr and Hattie Jacques.