PAULCRAMPTON’SCANTERBURY Changing face of the corners of King Street

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The old photos, seen above, date from 1965 and feature two junctions off King Street, Mill Lane and Blackfriars Street. The featured old buildings are numbers 19 to 21 Mill Lane, from the early 19th century, and numbers 10 to 12 King Street, from the late 17th and early 18th centuries. During the year these pictures were taken, the Blackfriars area was identified for slum clearance, and many of the old houses featured here were declared unfit for human habitation. Up until this time, post-war demolition schemes, however dubious the claims of properties being unfit might have been – and usually were – went ahead almost unopposed. Now though, local conservationists had found a voice and protested loudly about the Blackfriars proposals. In response to the opposition, the city council agreed to raise no objection to the best of the properties being restored. The city architect, John Berbiers even drew up a scheme where the best of these old properties were, in fact, retained alongside newly built terraced houses in a very modernist style. Numbers 10 to 12 King Street were among those to be retained. Sadly though, it was then discovered that, once a property had been condemned as unfit to live in, no legislation existed to enable them to reverse the decision. Consequently, all the old properties featured here were pulled down in the year 1966. After Berbiers’ departure, his successor designed a scheme for the entire area. Gone were the affordable new terraced houses; to be replaced by a development of much larger houses, dubbed as a ‘miniature Chelsea’ by its critics.