Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
History of ups and downs at Staplegate
The small area in Canterbury known as Staplegate can be found between Knott’s Lane, King Street and The Borough.
Before the Commonwealth period, this was the area where the archbishop had his stables, it being just a stone’s throw from the gateway into his palace precincts, in Palace Street.
Therefore, Staplegate is clearly a corruption of Stablegate.
During the 1540s, when the position of archbishop was abolished by parliament – along with that of the dean and chapter – it is likely that the stables were demolished as redundant and the area turned into a market garden.
Old maps of the 17th century indicate this area assigned to allotments, or similar usage.
In the late 17th century, the Staplegate area began to be developed for housing.
A new street, called Staplegate Place was laid out with small terraced houses typical of this period.
Later on, Cobden Place was added, with more substantial two and three-storey terraced houses of brick construction.
A third tiny thoroughfare, Goulden’s Passage, was also squeezed in, between Cobden Place and the backs of properties in The Borough.
All of these houses were subject to a large slum clearance order in 1937.
Demolition occurred the following year, although a few of the old properties were spared, as the accompanying pictures make clear.
The first picture, left, from the mid 1980s, shows a single, terraced house, formerly of Cobden Place, in use as part of Canterbury Wholefoods.
The second picture, above, taken at the same time, shows a single storey structure built on the footprint of lost Cobden Place properties, but with converted old dwellings from the former Goulden’s Passage immediately behind.
In recent years, the Staplegate area has been, once more, redeveloped for housing.