Canterbury Hotels

There's “no lovelier a place in England”, according to the author Virginia Woolf. The cradle of English Christianity is also where Rupert Bear and Bagpuss were created. Outside your Canterbury hotel expect narrow cobbled streets, medieval walls and streets lined with overhanging half-timbered Tudor houses.

Canterbury neighbourhoods

This small city is split into four distinct quarters. The central quarter is where you’ll find the magnificent cathedral, the Mother Church of England and the setting for the slaying of Thomas à Becket in 1170. Resident 16th-century cleric Archbishop Parker gave the world the phrase “nosey parker" here, and if you’re feeling curious yourself the bohemian northern quarter is an antiques hunter’s paradise. The south-eastern quarter is one of the city’s chief dining areas, and the eastern has the Millennium Shopping Centre. You’ll find the main arts venues in the western quarter.

Shopping in Canterbury

The King’s Mile is where to go for alternative independent shops selling everything from dolls’ houses to vintage cameras. The high street has all the big-name stores, while the Whitefriars centre is anchored by the impressive Fenwick department store. Around the cathedral, boutiques compete to out-chic each other. The acclaimed farmers’ market is set in a refurbished Victorian goods shed outside Canterbury West railway station. The hideous reproduction gargoyles on sale at the Canterbury Cathedral Shop will turn heads and maybe stomachs too.

Eating and drinking in Canterbury

When Bagpuss goes to sleep at the Museum of Canterbury's Rupert Bear Museum the rest of the city comes to life. The high street is dotted with cosy medieval half-timbered pubs and restaurants like the 16th-century Old Weavers House. For afternoon tea, try the homemade scones at Tiny Tim’s on St Margaret’s Street. For something fancier, Michael Caines Champagne and Cocktail Bar mixes a mean drink strong enough to have Professor Yaffle flapdoodling his way back to his hotel.

Culture and nightlife in Canterbury

Horse-drawn carriages are a romantic sight as they clip-clop down the cobbled streets to your Canterbury hotel. Spend a lazy evening sipping wine under a tartan blanket on a private lantern-lit boat cruise down the River Stour. The Gulbenkian Theatre based at the University of Kent stages contemporary theatre, comedy, jazz, dance and classical music concerts. The NewMarlowe Theatre, named after the Elizabethan playwright Christopher Marlowe, is open again from 2011 staging major theatrical productions, opera and classical music as well as rock concerts.

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