How march of time has changed city road

On a cold day in February 1960, the Kentish Gazette photographer caught a brief moment of excitement at the junction of Rose Lane with Watling Street, as a CND rally passed by.

Led by the ‘Red’ Dean of Canterbury, Hewlett Johnson, these good-natured, Christian protest marchers were on their way to the council offices, then situated in Regency houses on the Dane John.

Here, further photos would be taken as the mayor received the petition, and the opposing forces exchanged embarrassed handshakes. Although the march was the photographer’s originally intended subject, what is of equal interest today are the buildings on either side of the narrow Rose Lane junction. On the left is the small grocer’s shop of H.S. Brewer & Son, (demolished 1961) while to the right is the Typewriter Shop (demolished in 1962), which began a terrace of humble 18th century houses that extended up Watling Street as far as the new Congregational Church.

By 1962, this section of Rose Lane will have been considerably widened to form part of the city council’s long desired grand ‘Civic Way’. This would have linked the cathedral with a new council tower block on the Dane John, replacing the Regency houses, thus creating both a symbolic and actual link between church and state.

The second photo, from 1997, shows the widened Rose Lane fully redeveloped on both sides. However, by this time, the decision had already been made to demolish everything on the right-hand side, in this view, as part of the Whitefriars scheme.

The redeveloped Rose Lane in 1997, but more change was already on the horizon

CND marchers head for the council offices