Huge city inn where weary pilgrims rested

While most of this historic building was lost to fire in 1865, there is still much to see today...

The Chequer of Hope was once a large inn built to accommodate pilgrims to the Cathedral, including those who feature in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. Today, the remaining visible part of the inn lies at the corner of High Street and Mercery Lane and is home to Hardy’s sweet shop.

The three-storey building was constructed by Christchurch Priory in 1392 to accommodate pilgrims visiting the shrine of Thomas Becket in the Cathedral and also to boost the priory’s income. The ground floor housed workshops with shop fronts with storage provided in the basement. The original arcaded ground floor can still be seen along Mercery Lane today.

Like modern hotels, the quality and size of the rooms depended on your budget. For wealthier pilgrims, the first floor had suites with an external gallery overlooking the central courtyard, which extended halfway along Mercery Lane. For those less well off, there was a second floor dormitory under the rafters which could accommodate up to 100 people.

The pilgrims are said to have played a board game at the inn on tables made of beer barrels stood on their ends, and held together by hoops (or hopes) of iron. This is thought to be a potential source for the inn’s unusual name.

Sadly, much of the western end of the building was destroyed in a huge fire in 1865 - but the facades on the High Street and Mercery Lane escaped substantial damage.

And there is still much to see today. On one of the corner posts there is a cognizance - a distinguishing badge or bearing in heraldry - said to be that of the Black Prince. A similar lion image is displayed above his tomb in the Cathedral. Inside Hardy’s shop, there is an example of a “dragon beam” going diagonally across the ceiling and supporting the corner posts of the jetties above.

■ Pictures and information used with kind permission of Canterbury Historical and Archaeological Society. Visit canterbury-archaeology.org.uk.

Hardy’s sweet shop on the corner of the High Street and Mercery Lane today occupies what was formerly part of the Chequer of Hope’s ground floor

Picture: CHAS Artist’s impression of the galleried central courtyard of the Chequer of Hope which extended halfway along Mercery Lane

Picture: CHAS The large square three-storey Chequer of Hope, as imagined from above

The original arcaded ground floor along Mercery Lane

The Black Prince cognizance on a corner post seen today