Historic Cities · England
Canterbury through the ages
Canterbury is a city and UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Canterbury district, county of Kent, England; it was a county borough until 1974. Lying on the River Stour not far from its mouth on the Strait of Dover, the city has a mild oceanic climate.
Canterbury in AD 200
Roman Durovernum
Durovernum Cantiacorum is the civitas capital of the Cantiaci, a compact, prosperous Roman market and administrative town on the Stour at the convergence of roads to the Channel ports. The walk passes the theatre and temple precinct, the forum and public baths, gravelled shopping streets and timber-fronted workshops, tile and pottery yards, mills on the river and the town walls being raised in flint and tile.
A low, compact skyline of timber fronts, tile roofs and the semicircular mass of a stone theatre rises beside the wide ribbon of the River Stour. Streets are gravelled, flanked by one-storey wooden shops and occasional stone houses with mosaic thresholds. Smoke and kiln-ash hang above pottery yards; flint and tile foundations and newly raised stretches of wall punctuate the perimeter, while carts and donkeys move along the main Roman road, Watling Street.
The walk — 24 streets, squares and views
Watling Street Approach → Stour Crossing → West Gate → Stour Quay → Mill on the Stour → Gravelled Main Street → Forum and Basilica → Temple Precinct → Great Theatre → Public Baths → …
Step inside — 13 interiors
Roadside Taberna Interior · Watermill Wheel Pit · Basilica Central Hall · Temple Cella Inner Chamber · Vaulted Theatre Passages · Heated Caldarium Chamber · Apodyterium Changing Room · Potter's Workshop and Kiln · Tile Kiln Stoking Room · Baker's Shop and Donkey Mill · Mosaic Atrium with Impluvium · Household Triclinium Dining Room · Bronzework Foundry Interior
Planned from the Wikipedia record: Durovernum Cantiacorum.
Canterbury in 1400
Chaucer's Canterbury
Canterbury in 1400 is England's chief pilgrim city, its cathedral precinct dominated by a newly rising nave while hostelries and badge-sellers swell the streets. The walk shows the city from the Stour approach, through its rebuilt walls and bustling markets, past St Augustine's Abbey, and up to a high viewpoint that takes in the cathedral and the river.
Stone and timber sit close across narrow medieval streets: the cathedral's pale Caen and Kentish stone rises above red-tiled roofs and dark oak-framed houses. The River Stour threads the town with timber quays and small boats; the city wall and its newly rebuilt towers punctuate the skyline. Markets cluster on the High Street and Buttermarket, while masons' scaffolds mark Yevele's soaring new nave at the cathedral.
The walk — 21 streets, squares and views
Watling Street Approach → Westgate Towers → Stour at Westgate → Burgate → The Buttermarket → Mercery Lane → St George's Street → King's School Close → Cathedral West Front → Yevele's New Nave → …
Step inside — 12 interiors
Westgate Guard Chamber · Covered Market Hall · Pilgrims' Dormitory · School Hall · Cathedral Crypt · Great Nave Vault · Parish Nave · Trinity Shrine Chamber · Abbey Refectory · Abbey Chapter House · Castle Great Hall · Riverside Warehouse
Planned from the Wikipedia record: Canterbury.
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