Canterbury Cathedral: Murder, Pilgrimage, and One of England’s Most Important Buildings

On December 29, 1170, four knights acting on a misread command from King Henry II hacked Thomas Becket to death inside his own cathedral. Within three years, the Pope had canonised Becket. Within a decade, Canterbury had become one of the most important pilgrimage destinations in medieval Europe. Within two centuries, Geoffrey Chaucer had made the journey there so culturally central that his Canterbury Tales became foundational English literature. What you visit today is not just a cathedral; it’s a building shaped by an assassination that reoriented English religious life for 400 years.

The cathedral itself has been on this site since 597 AD, though the current structure is largely Norman and Gothic work from the 12th century onward. It’s a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the seat of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the senior bishop of the Church of England. Those credentials mean it matters institutionally. What matters experientially is that the building is genuinely extraordinary.

The Cathedral Itself

The Trinity Chapel, where Becket’s shrine stood before Henry VIII ordered its destruction in 1538, is still the emotional centre of the building. The site of the shrine is marked on the floor, and the surrounding 12th-century stained glass, some of the oldest and finest in England, depicts miracle scenes associated with Becket. The corona, a circular chapel at the far east end, is almost always quiet and contains a striking fragment of the original shrine pavement.

The Crypt, dating from the 11th century, is the oldest part of the building open to visitors and often bypassed by people rushing through the main nave. Go down. The low vaulted space with its carved capitals is quieter than the nave above and gives a better sense of the cathedral’s age.

Admission tickets start at £18 for adults, valid for a year with unlimited return visits. Children under 17 are free when accompanied by a paying adult. Pre-booking is strongly recommended: the timed entry system means turning up without a reservation can leave you without a slot, especially in summer and school holidays.

Practical Logistics

The Cathedral is best seen on a weekday morning in the first couple of hours after opening, before school groups and coach tours concentrate. Audio guides are available and genuinely useful. Allow 2-3 hours for a thorough visit including the Crypt, the Corona, and the cloisters, which are calmer than the main body of the building and contain an atmospheric chapter house worth seeing.

Canterbury itself is small enough to walk in an afternoon. The city’s Roman walls survive in sections worth following. The Canterbury Roman Museum, built around excavated mosaic floors from a 1st-century town house, is underrated.

Where to Eat

The Goods Shed Market near the train station runs daily with local food vendors, good artisan bakers, and a sit-down restaurant using market produce. It’s the best lunch option in the city by a reasonable margin.

The Old Buttermarket adjacent to the cathedral is a preserved 16th-century building serving traditional English food in the middle of tourist territory; it’s better than its location suggests. For a pub meal with local ales, The White Horse on St Peter’s Street has been pulling pints in one form or another since the 15th century.

Where to Stay

ABode Canterbury is the city’s best mid-range hotel, occupying a listed building with well-designed rooms and a solid restaurant. The Duke of Cumberland Hotel suits families with its range of room sizes. Budget travellers do better at Canterbury’s hostels, which are central and cheap given the city’s size.

The train from London St Pancras on the High Speed 1 service takes under an hour to Canterbury West, making a day trip entirely viable from London. If you’re combining it with the coast, Whitstable (a 20-minute bus ride north) has exceptional oysters and a genuinely appealing harbour town atmosphere.