Unrecognisable scenes of Watling Street

In the late 1940s, Watling Street, Canterbury clearly displayed the scars of severe bombing in both the raids of June and October 1942. And the closer you got to the Riding Gate, the worse the devastation seemed.

The first photo, from 1949, shows the newly completed but temporary Congregational Church. It was put up on the damaged site of its more solidly built predecessor, which was gutted by fire during a minor raid in the first week of June and then flattened in the surprise daylight raid of Saturday, October 31.

A more permanent brick replacement was built in the mid1950s, and this lasted for around 40 years before being demolished for the Whitefriars scheme.

Today, the site is occupied by the broad entrance into the Whitefriars’ underground services.

We move towards the bottom end of Watling Street for the second picture, which dates from 1946. The photographer has captured the Jacobean period development at Nos. 16 to 19 Watling Street. Dating from 1625, some or all of this scheme once belonged to the Mann family, whose memorials could be once found in the old St Mary Bredin Church.

The Dutch gabled properties at 18 and 19, although gutted in the Blitz, were then being considered for repair and renovation due to their historical significance. Sadly, nothing came of this and they were pulled down in 1953.

In the foreground are the damaged cellar of No. 29 and the flattened site of No. 30 Watling Street. The former had once been a tailors shop, while the latter was a private house.

The temporary Congregational Church, in 1949

Blitzed Jacobean buildings in Watling Street