Historic city high street always changing

Throughout the centuries, the High Street in Canterbury has had to move with the times...

Anumber of large coaching inns once dominated the High Street in Canterbury. The most important was the George and Dragon, which at the peak of the coaching era was the arrival and departure point for 19 different carriers. But as the coaching trade declined in the face of competition from the railways, the inns fell into neglect. The George and Dragon was demolished in 1897 to make way for the Beaney Institute, the city’s museum and library.

In 1906, the building to the left of the Beaney was an outfitters run by Hart and Co - while to the right was the Medical Hall, occupied by Lander and Smith chemists and opticians. Today these buildings are home to Trespass and The Works respectively.

For centuries the city council had met in the medieval Guildhall at the corner of the High Street and Guildhall Street. But the building was demolished - despite a public outcry in 1952. Shortly after, the ancient Fleur de Lys Inn, on the opposite side met the same fate. The site of the former pub is now occupied by Card factory. More than a century before, the old Red Lion Inn had been demolished to create Guildhall Street, linking the High Street with Palace Street. Further along the High Street was the Bread Market, held next to St Mary

Bredman Church which itself was demolished at the turn of the century. One of the finest buildings still standing in the High Street is the Elizabethan Guest House, named after

a tradition that Queen Elizabeth I met her suitor, the duc d’alençon, here in 1573. It is now home to Caffe Nero.

■ Pictures and information used with kind permission of Neil Mattingly.

The George and Dragon, left, shortly before its demolition in 1897 to make way for the Beaney, pictured in 1906

The High Street in the summer of 1905, with the neo-classical fronted Guildhall to the right and Henry Goulden’s store to the left, which sold pianos, sheet music and fancy goods

The George and Dragon coaching inn features in this depiction of the High Street in 1827 by Thomas Sidney Cooper

The High Street in Edwardian times, with the iconic Elizabethan Guest House seen second from left