Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Marx’s miserable walk around Canterbury
The great philosopher and economist thought the city was “old, ugly and medieval”...
While Canterbury turned red at the last two general elections, it seems the father of socialism was none too impressed when he paid a visit. Karl Marx spent one night in the city 154 years ago. The German-born philosopher was living in London at the time and took frequent trips to the Kent seaside. In 1866 he enjoyed a break in Margate, where sea bathing, treatment in the sea baths and the use of rough towels helped soothe the persistent boils he suffered from. On Sunday, March 18, he started the day with a two-hour walk along the pier and seafront, before deciding to hike 17 miles to Canterbury, later describing the visit in a letter to his daughter Laura.
He entered the city through the seedy suburbs of the barracks area and Northgate. En-route he passed large government signs warning the public of the serious outbreak of cattle disease - so serious that special prayers were held in the Cathedral.
It seems he went next to Canterbury West, no doubt to check the train times for his return on Monday morning. Marx wrote: “Happily, I was too tired, and it was too late, to look out for the celebrated Cathedral. Canterbury is an old, ugly, medieval sort of town, not mended by large modern English barracks at one, and a dismal dry railway station at the other end [...] there is no trace of poetry about it.” Well, it had been a rather long walk. It is not known where Marx spent the
night in the city - only that it seems he was keen to see the back of it. ■ Information and some images used with kind permission of Canterbury Historical and Archaeological Society.