Iconic views along city’s historic lanes

For centuries pilgrims have turned onto these lanes and seen the Cathedral in all its splendour...

Mercery Lane is one of the most picturesque streets in England, with its mixture of old buildings leading the eye to the magnificent Christ Church Gateway and the Cathedral beyond. Its name dates back to the 12th century and under its arcades mercers - dealers in textiles - would sell their wares to pilgrims.

The west side of the lane originally formed part of a huge inn which fronted the high street. The inn was made famous as the Chequer of Hope in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. The once large square three-storyed building, with a galleried central courtyard, was built in 1392 to accommodate pilgrims visiting the shrine of Thomas Becket. Only parts of the inn now remain - most of it was destroyed in a fire in 1865. Butchery Lane had, in earlier centuries, been the centre for the meat trade and still had four butcher’s shops at the turn of this century. All the buildings along one side of the lane were lost during the extensive German bombing in 1942.

Linking the two lanes is The Parade, which formerly had a narrow island of buildings in its middle - containing St Andrew’s Church, a medieval water conduit and the Corn Shambles. These were all re-sited in the 18th century when the streets were tidied up to relieve traffic congestion. It was also home to the historic Rose Hotel, which dated back to 1660. It closed in the 1930s and was destroyed in the Baedeker raids of 1942, as was most of Rose Lane.

■ Pictures and information used with kind permission of Neil Mattingly and Canterbury Historical and Archaeological Trust.

The famous Rose Hotel and, opposite, the corn and seed merchants the Taylor Brothers, pictured in the 1920s. Both buildings were lost in the Second World War

The picturesque view along Mercery Lane as painted by E. Smith in 1846; on the left is the famous hostelry the Chequer of Hope

Workmen restoring Boots in Mercery Lane in about 1920; the buildings on the right of Butchery Lane, pictured in 1904, were all lost to bombing raids in 1942

Shoppers stroll along Mercery Lane in 1950