Ancient road changed by the war

BURGATE is a very ancient Canterbury thoroughfare, dating back to Roman times. It was part of the Roman road that came from Richborough, entered the city via the Burgate and then exited it through the Westgate. The other main thoroughfare was Watling Street, which entered the City through Riding Gate and exited it via the long-lost London Gate. The city’s present main street probably didn’t come into existence until the late Saxon period. Pre-war Burgate, then known as Burgate Street, offered a wonderful variety of buildings in many styles, reflecting the centuries in which they were built. However, as with the parallel St George’s Street, by the 1930s individual old structures were already beginning to give way to modern shop buildings. The Second World War changed all that, in devastating fashion. One of the earliest raids on Canterbury occurred at noon on Friday, October 11, 1940. Luftwaffe ME 109s attacked Burgate Street, which was crowded with lunchtime shoppers. In all, nine people were killed and six shops on the north side of the street were destroyed. A number of shops on the south side of Burgate were badly blasted but repairable. In the same raid, Canon Crum’s house at No 13 The Precincts (just behind the devastated Burgate buildings) received a direct hit. The damaged shops on Burgate’s south side were subsequently re-opened – only to be utterly destroyed in the main Baedeker raid of June 1, 1942.