Westgate, Canterbury: Largest Surviving City Gate In England
The magnificent Westgate in Canterbury has stood for centuries - and it’s the largest surviving city gate in England.
This 60-foot high western gate of the city wall, featuring three floors, was built of Kentish ragstone around 1379.
It is the last survivor of Canterbury's seven medieval gates, still well-preserved and one of the city's most distinctive landmarks.
Very little has changed to the magnificent structure over the last 200 years, which was originally built during the 100 Years’ War to defend Canterbury from foreign incursion.
It was also constricted to demonstrate the city’s wealth and importance.
Its history is fascinating, it once used as a notorious prison, but today, it’s a museum and cars drive between the drum towers everyday.
This scheduled monument, and Grade I listed structure, houses the West Gate Towers Museum as well as a series of historically themed escape rooms.
The historic city of Canterbury, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, was walled by the Romans around 300 AD.
The Romans lived in Canterbury from around 70 AD to around 410 AD.
Recent excavations have identified roads, a large stone theatre, mosaic floors, large buildings known as mansio (an early version of a resting place for travellers, similar to a hotel), temples, and public baths.
Westgate has been consistently the most important of the city's gates as it is the London Road entrance and the main entrance from most of Kent.
The present towers are a medieval replacement of the Roman west gate, rebuilt around 1380.
There was a gate here at the time of the Norman conquest, which is thought to have been Roman.
From late Anglo-Saxon times, it had the Church of the Holy Cross on top, but both church and gate were dismantled in 1379, and the gate was rebuilt by Archbishop Simon Sudbury before he died in the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381.
It has been suggested that it was built primarily as an entrance for pilgrims visiting the shrine of St Thomas Becket at the cathedral.
However the rebuild as a defensive status symbol was paid for partly by Sudbury and partly by taxation for military protection against expected raids by the French
In 1453 Henry VI, permitted the Mayor and Commonality to keep a jail at the Westgate, so the building was Canterbury's prison from the 15th to the 19th century, while Canterbury Castle was the county jail.
Apparently, several 19th-century prisoners managed to escape from the West Gate Tower by leaping from the roof… It's not something we’d like to try!
In January 1648, after the Christmas Day riot, Parliamentarians burnt down all the wooden doors of the city's gates.
They were all replaced in 1660, but these replacements were removed at the end of the eighteenth century.
They were similar to the surviving wooden Christ Church gates at the cathedral.
After repairs to the Westgate and jail in 1667, a pound was built on the north side for the hail; this is now gone, but Pound Lane remains.
The guard rooms, heavily wood-lined in the eighteenth century, became cells for both debtors and criminals, and the room over the arch became the condemned cell with the portcullis now laid on top.
Until 1775, there was a grated cage in the prison gateway, where certain prisoners were allowed to beg for alms and speak with passers by.
Capital punishment was normally the gallows, plus the stake at Wincheap for religious martyrs in the time of Queen Mary.
In the 19th century, a jailer's house was built on the north side, and this became the headquarters of Canterbury City Police.
It also played a big role in both world wars.
Canterbury was of strategic importance in World War I as a railway junction, a home to a large army barracks, and a transit station for men and material going to and returning from the Western Front.
Despite its proximity to the French coast, the City was never attacked from the air.
Nevertheless, it did play a small role in the country’s air defences – day and night, spotters on Westgate’s roof watched for Zeppelin airships and, later in the war, Gotha bombers trundling towards their targets in Chatham and London.
Sightings were relayed by telephone to the anti-aircraft batteries, searchlights and eight Home Defence squadrons which had managed to down ten airships and 22 aircraft by the end of hostilities in November 1918.
The Westgate’s role in World War II was altogether different.
Its crucial strategic position had not changed, but the power and range of bomber aircraft had. So too had the geography of war.
While in World War I the front had remained far from England’s White Cliffs, two decades later those same cliffs were themselves the front line.
As a result, in 1940 Westgate was prepared to fulfil once more the task for which it had been built: resist foreign invasion!
Today, this amazing structure still stands and it now a museum.
The exhibits cover four themes including City Wars, Crime & Punishment, Westgate Through History and Magna Carta & The Maquettes.
You’ll also find armour and weapons used by defenders of Canterbury from the medieval period to World War II.
Children can dress up in replica armour, and see the old prison cells within the gatehouse tower.
You can climb to the top of the tower for amazing views over the city and down onto the River Stour.
Once you've taken in the beauty of the city and the museum exhibits, head down to the bar The Pound to grab a drink and take a seat in the newly restored police cells!
The reviews on TripAdvisor are very good. One recent visitors said: “The guide was very knowledgeable, welcoming and enthusiastic.
”We learned a lot about Canterbury's prison system and history. We looked out over the city from the minuscule 'exercise yard'. Bistro on the ground floor makes great use of the cells.”
Another person added: “The museum and viewpoint are a wonderful diversion for an hour or so - with a fascinating history.
”Once you've soaked up all the history do take the winding steps up to the viewpoint for some lovely vistas over Canterbury.”
If you’d like to visit, the address is: 2 St. Peters Street, Canterbury, Kent, England.
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