Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Building businesses and clearing slums
IN CANTERBURY’S postwar redevelopment scheme, announced in early 1952, large parts of residential Northgate were designated for light industrial use. Eventually, this would require the demolition of all the early 19th century housing across the area.
To start with, small business premises would be built on empty sites within the designated area.
The first of the new light industrial units to appear was the premises of County Electricals at 141-146 Northgate, which opened in May 1952. As the street numbering would imply, the garage was built on the site of six cottages that had been destroyed in the daylight raid of October 1942. It stood next to the Jesus Hospital at the beginning of Sturry Road.
By the late 1950s, the plans for the area had changed and new housing would now be built alongside the new businesses, such as the garage and filling station in Union Street and the small taxi premises at 125-127 Northgate. In the 1960s, slum clearance spread along the remainder of the main Northgate street frontage.
The office scheme, known as Northgate House subsequently appeared. The last remaining pre-war building in this section of Northgate was The Prince of Wales Youth Club. Sadly, this was destroyed by fire in around 1977. For the next 10 years or so, the vast area next to County Electricals remained undeveloped.
Then in 1988 Tourtel Road was built, linking Sturry Road and Kingsmead Road with Military Road. This new scheme also required the demolition of the County Electricals premises.