Only the church tower survives in city view

Before the Second World War the top end of Canterbury’s main street, comprising The Parade and St George’s Street, was considered the most prestigious section.

It was also part of the main A2, carrying through traffic from London to Dover. The first of the above pictures shows St George’s Street, during Cricket Week, in the early years of the 20th century.

Of course, this is the scene that would change almost entirely, following the infamous Baedeker Raid of June 1, 1942.

As a result, only the gutted shell of St George’s Church, seen on the right, survived in this view.

Further down, on the left, the flatroofed early 1930s Marks & Spencer store would also survive. However, this end of the main street would have seen drastic changes even if the enemy bombers had not intervened.

New shops had already been planned to replace two of the thoroughfare’s historic buildings, namely the 17th century Rose Hotel and Pollard’s jewellers, with its restored timber framed frontage. Post-war rebuilding of St George’s Street began in the autumn of 1951 and was finally completed about 10 years later.

The buildings seen in the second view, from 1997, all date for that period.

The wide, sweeping dualled thoroughfare, seen in the foreground, was part of a planned network of intra-mural streets that would encourage traffic into the city. Today, this scene has, once again, been entirely transformed by the Whitefriars redevelopmen and a somewhat unwelcoming atmosphere provided by the overwhelming bulk of the Fenwick store, which imposes itself blatantly upon the main street.

Above, Cricket Week in early 20th century St George’s Street, Canterbury… and the same scene, as it appeared in 1997