The rooftop view
From the battlements St Peter's Street runs dead straight into the old city, with Bell Harry tower beyond the rooftops - one of the best overhead views in Canterbury.
Ymblanter — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Tony Hisgett from Birmingham, UK — CC BY 2.0 · Andy Li — CC0 · Tilman2007 — CC BY-SA 4.0
Medieval Canterbury had seven gates; this is the one still standing, a pair of drum towers in Kentish ragstone rising about 18 metres, with traffic still squeezing through the arch between them exactly where the carts did six centuries ago. It went up around 1380 under Archbishop Simon Sudbury to a design by Henry Yevele, the master mason behind the naves of Westminster Abbey and Canterbury Cathedral. Defence soon gave way to detention: the gate served as the city gaol from the mid-1400s into the 1800s, which is why today's operator trades under the name The Old City Jail. The museum inside is small, and honestly so: four rooms themed around City Wars, Crime and Punishment, Westgate Through History and Magna Carta, plus gunports that rank among the earliest built in Britain. The real prize is the rooftop battlements, where St Peter's Street runs dead straight into the old city and the cathedral's Bell Harry tower stands above the rooftops beyond, a view street level will not give you. Reaching it means five flights of narrow, twisting stone stairs, and the roof turns slippery after rain, so this is no place for a pushchair or a wheelchair, and a poor choice for anyone uneasy with heights or steps. Admission is GBP 4 for adults, GBP 2 for children aged 5 to 17 and GBP 10 for a family ticket, paid at the door by card only; there is no advance booking. It opens noon to 16:00 every day except Saturday, last entry 15:45, and from January to March it also shuts on Mondays and Tuesdays, so treat it as an afternoon filler rather than a morning plan. A full visit, photos from the top included, rarely stretches past 45 minutes. Most visitors, in truth, settle for the view from outside, and the case for that is strong. The towers look their best from the neighbouring Westgate Gardens, free and open to all, where the River Stour slides under a stone bridge past lawns, flower beds and an ancient oriental plane whose swollen trunk spills over the low railing around it. Boats and punts set off from the water beside the gardens in summer and the grass fills on long July evenings. Climb the towers if you want that overhead shot of the cathedral; otherwise the gardens alone do the job.
From the battlements St Peter's Street runs dead straight into the old city, with Bell Harry tower beyond the rooftops - one of the best overhead views in Canterbury.
Built around 1380 to Henry Yevele's design, the mason of Westminster Abbey's nave, with gunports among the earliest in Britain.
Free riverside gardens beside the towers, with lawns, summer rowing boats and an ancient oriental plane tree.
One Pound Lane, Canterbury CT1 2BZ
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Canterbury CathedralOn a winter evening in 1170 four knights walked into this building and killed Ar7 minutes walk4.7With children over six who manage stairs confidently the climb is short, cheap and fun; with a toddler or a pushchair stay in the free gardens: there is no lift, the five flights are narrow and twisting, and the roof is slippery after rain.
No. Tickets are sold at the door, card only, and while the museum is small enough that you may wait a few minutes on the stairs in August, real queues are unheard of. The actual catch is the short day: noon to 16:00 only with last entry at 15:45, and closed every Saturday.