Canterbury ( KAN-tər-bər-ee or -berr-ee) 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 is a popular tourist destination, with the city's economy heavily reliant upon tourism, alongside higher education and retail. As of 2021, the city had a population of 55,087 inhabitants, including a substantial number of students and one of the highest student-to-permanent-resident ratios in Britain.
The site of the city has been occupied since Paleolithic times and served as the capital of the Celtic Cantiaci and Jute Kingdom of Kent. Many historical structures fill the area, including a city wall founded in Roman times and rebuilt in the 14th century, the Westgate Towers museum, the ruins of St Augustine's Abbey, the Norman Canterbury Castle, and the oldest extant school in the world, the King's School. Modern additions include the Marlowe Theatre and Kent County Cricket Club's St Lawrence Ground. Canterbury Cathedral is known for its architecture, its music, and for being the seat of the Archbishop of Canterbury; it receives a million visitors per year.
Toponymy
The Roman settlement of Durovernum Cantiacorum (" Durovernum of the Cantiaci") occupied the location of an earlier British town whose ancient British name has been reconstructed as *Durou̯ernon ("stronghold by the alder grove"), although the name is sometimes supposed to have derived from various British names for the Stour. Medieval variants of the Roman name include Dorobernia and Dorovernia. In Sub-Roman Britain, it was known in Old Welsh as Cair Ceint ("stronghold of Kent"). Occupied by the Jutes, it became known in Old English as Cantwareburh ("stronghold of the Kentish men").
History
Early history
The Canterbury area has been inhabited since prehistoric times. Lower Paleolithic axes, and Neolithic and Bronze Age pots have been found in the area. Canterbury was first recorded as the main settlement of the Celtic tribe of the Cantiaci, which inhabited most of modern-day Kent. In the 1st century AD, the Romans captured the settlement and named it Durovernum Cantiacorum. The Romans rebuilt the city, with new streets in a grid pattern, a theatre, a temple, a forum, and public baths. Although they did not maintain a major military garrison, its position on Watling Street relative to the major Kentish ports of Rutupiae (Richborough), Dubrae (Dover), and Lemanae (Lymne) gave it considerable strategic importance. In the late 3rd century, to defend against attack from barbarians, the Romans built an earth bank around the city and a wall with seven gates, which enclosed an area of 130 acres (53 ha).
Despite being counted as one of the 28 cities of Sub-Roman Britain, it seems that after the Romans left Britain in 410 Durovernum Cantiacorum was abandoned for around 100 years, except by a few farmers and gradually decayed. Over the next 100 years, an Anglo-Saxon community formed within the city walls, as Jutish refugees arrived, possibly intermarrying with the locals. The town's new importance led to its revival, and trades developed in pottery, textiles, and leather. By 630, gold coins were being struck at the Canterbury mint. In 842 and 851, Canterbury suffered great loss of life during Danish raids.
11th–16th centuries
The siege of Canterbury saw a large Viking army besiege Canterbury in 1011, culminating in the city being pillaged. Remembering the destruction caused by the Danes, the inhabitants of Canterbury did not resist William the Conqueror's invasion in 1066. William immediately ordered a wooden motte-and-bailey castle to be built by the Roman city wall. In the early 12th century, the castle was rebuilt with stone. Canterbury Castle was captured by the French Prince Louis during his 1215 invasion of England, before the death of John caused his English supporters to desert his cause and support the young Henry III.
Black Death reached Canterbury in 1348. At 10,000, Canterbury had the 10th largest population in England; by the early 16th century, the population had fallen to 3,000. In 1363, during the Hundred Years' War, a Commission of Inquiry found disrepair, stone-robbing and ditch-filling had led to the Roman wall becoming eroded. Between 1378 and 1402, the wall was virtually rebuilt, and new wall towers were added. In 1381, during Wat Tyler's Peasants' Revolt, the castle and Archbishop's Palace were sacked, and Archbishop Sudbury was beheaded in London. In 1413, Henry IV became the only sovereign to be buried at the cathedral. In 1448 Canterbury was granted a city charter, which gave it a mayor and a high sheriff; the city still has a Lord Mayor and Sheriff.
In 1519 a public cage for talkative women and other wrongdoers was set up next to the town's pillory at the Bullstake, now the Buttermarket. In 1522 a stone cross with gilt lead stars was erected at the same place, and painted with bice and gilded by Florence the painter.
History of Huguenot refugees
In the mid-16th century many Huguenots, experiencing persecution and conflict in the Low Countries, fled and resettled in Reformed regions such as England. Canterbury hosted the first congregation of so-called 'refugee strangers' in the country. This first Huguenot church in Canterbury was founded around 1548, in part by Jan Utenhove who relocated from Strasbourg, alongside Valérand Poullain and François de la Rivière. When Utenhove travelled to London in 1549, Francois de la Rivière remained to lead the congregation. With the accession of Mary I, the Huguenot residents of Canterbury were compelled to flee in 1553–4 alongside the English Marian exiles to Emden, Wesel, Zürich, Strasbourg, Frankfurt, and later Basel, Geneva, and Aarau.
After the accession of Elizabeth I, a small number of Huguenots returned to London, including Jan Utenhove in 1559. In 1561, a number of Huguenots in London were sent to Sandwich, a settlement which began to grow rapidly with new refugees arriving from Artois and Flanders. This settlement, in June 1575, almost entirely relocated to Canterbury, which had in the previous year gained a small Huguenot population. A number of refugees also arrived around this time from the temporary Huguenot settlements at Rye and Winchelsea. In 1575, the Huguenot population of Canterbury were granted use of the church of St Alphedge but in the following year had begun to use the crypt of Canterbury Cathedral as their church. The Church of the Crypt swiftly became the nucleus of the Huguenot community in Canterbury.
By the 17th century, French-speaking Huguenots comprised two-fifths of Canterbury's population. The Huguenots had a large influence on the economy of Canterbury, and introduced silk weaving into the city which had outstripped wool weaving by 1676.
17th century–present
Canterbury remained an important city in the 17th century. Charles I and Henrietta Maria visited in 1625; musicians played whilst the couple entered the city under a velvet canopy supported by six men holding poles. In 1647, during the English Civil War, riots broke out. The riots became known as the "Plum Pudding Riots". The rioters' trial the following year led to a Kent revolt against Parliamentarian forces, contributing to the start of the second phase of the war. However, Canterbury surrendered peacefully to Parliamentarians at the Battle of Maidstone.
By 1770, the castle had fallen into disrepair, and many parts of it were demolished during the late 18th century and early 19th century. In 1787 all the gates in the city wall, except for Westgate—the city jail—were demolished as a result of a commission that found them impeding to new coach travel. Canterbury Prison opened in 1808 just outside the city boundary. By 1820 the silk weaving in the city had been supplanted by imported Indian muslins and trade carried out was thereafter largely of hops and wheat. The Canterbury & Whitstable Railway (The Crab and Winkle Way), the world's first passenger railway, was opened in 1830; bankrupt by 1844, it was purchased by the South Eastern Railway, which connected the city to its larger network in 1846. The London, Chatham & Dover Railway arrived in 1860; the competition and cost-cutting between the lines was resolved by merging them as the South Eastern & Chatham in 1899. Between 1830 and 1900, the city's population grew from 15,000 to 24,000.
During the First World War, barracks and voluntary hospitals were set up around the city. In 1917 a German bomber crash-landed near Broad Oak Road. Mahatma Gandhi visited Canterbury in October 1931.
During the Second World War, 10,445 bombs dropped during 135 separate raids destroyed 731 homes and 296 other buildings in the city, including the missionary college and Simon Langton Girls' Grammar School. 119 civilian people died through enemy action in the borough. The most devastating raid was on 1 June 1942 during the Baedeker Blitz. Before the end of the war, the architect Charles Holden drew up plans to redevelop the city centre, but locals were so opposed that the Citizens' Defence Association was formed; it swept to power in the 1945 municipal elections. Rebuilding of the city centre eventually began 10 years after the war. A ring road was constructed in stages outside the city walls to alleviate growing traffic problems in the city centre, which was later pedestrianised. The biggest expansion of the city occurred in the 1960s, with the arrival of the University of Kent at Canterbury and Christ Church College.
The 1980s saw visits from Queen Elizabeth II, and the beginning of the annual Canterbury Festival. Between 1999 and 2005, the Whitefriars Shopping Centre underwent major redevelopment. In 2000, during the redevelopment, a major archaeological project was undertaken by the Canterbury Archaeological Trust, known as the Big Dig, which was supported by Channel Four's Time Team.
Geography
Climate
Canterbury experiences an oceanic climate (Köppen climate classification Cfb), similar to almost all of the United Kingdom. Canterbury enjoys mild temperatures all year round, being between 1.8 °C (35.2 °F) and 22.8 °C (73 °F). There is relatively little rainfall throughout the year.
Demographics
The 2021 United Kingdom census showed a population of 55,087. Ethnically, the city was 78.3% white, 8.2% Asian, 5.9% Black, 4.4% Mixed, 1% Arab and 2.1% Other groups.
At the 2001 UK census, the total population of the city itself was 43,432, and 135,278 within the Canterbury district. In 2011, the total district population was counted as 151,200, with an 11.7% increase from 2001, and the population of the city had grown to over 55,000. By 2015, Canterbury's student population, including the University of Kent and Canterbury Christ Church University, and the smaller University for the Creative Arts, was almost 40,000. Canterbury's 2026 population is now estimated at 71,824 .
Physical
Canterbury is in east Kent, about 55 miles (89 km) east-southeast of London. The coastal towns of Herne Bay and Whitstable are 6 miles (10 km) to the north, and Faversham is 8 miles (13 km) to the northwest. The city is on the River Stour or Great Stour. The river is navigable on the tidal section to Fordwich, although above this point canoes and other small craft can be used. The geology of the area consists mainly of brickearth overlying chalk. Tertiary sands overlain by London clay form St. Thomas's Hill and St. Stephen's Hill about a mile northwest of the city centre.
Canterbury is a medieval city, with Canterbury Cathedral inside the ring of the city walls, forming the historic centre. Of the defensive structures, a section of the medieval walls remains to the south, near Canterbury Castle, while to the northwest, the Westgate survives as the Westgate Towers museum. Immediately outside the Westgate is the River Stour which crosses the city from southwest to northeast. A road runs straight across the city from the Westgate, forming the High Street (including St George's Street) and part of the North Downs Way. St Augustine's Abbey lies just outside the city walls.
Political
The city became a county borough under the Local Government Act 1888. In 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, the city came under the control of Kent County Council. Canterbury, along with Whitstable and Herne Bay, is now in the City of Canterbury local government district. The city's urban area consists of the six electoral wards of Barton, Blean Forest, Northgate, St Stephens, Westgate, and Wincheap. These wards have eleven of the fifty seats on the Canterbury City Council, which governs the city.
The former Holy Cross Church building was officially re-opened by the Prince of Wales as the new Canterbury Guildhall and meeting place of the City Council on 9 November 1978.
The Member of Parliament for the Canterbury constituency, which includes Whitstable, is Rosie Duffield formerly of the Labour Party but now sits as an independent.