Canterbury Cathedral is England’s oldest cathedral, founded in 597 AD by St Augustine and still serving as the seat of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the spiritual head of the worldwide Anglican Communion. Its history spans everything from Viking raids and a catastrophic Norman-era fire to the 1170 assassination of Archbishop Thomas Becket, an event that turned Canterbury into one of medieval Europe’s most important pilgrimage sites. Alongside its genuine 1,400-year story, the cathedral’s stonework carries centuries of pilgrim and visitor graffiti, its Norman crypt survives largely intact beneath a soaring Gothic nave, and the whole site — together with nearby St Augustine’s Abbey and St Martin’s Church — forms a single UNESCO World Heritage Site.

History of Canterbury Cathedral

St Augustine’s Mission and the First Cathedral (597 AD)

St Augustine arrived in Kent in 597 AD, sent by Pope Gregory the Great to lead a mission converting the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of England to Christianity. He was welcomed by King Æthelberht of Kent, whose wife Queen Bertha was already a practising Christian, and Augustine reused an existing Roman-era building — today’s St Martin’s Church — as his mission’s first base before founding a church dedicated to Christ the Holy Saviour on the site of the present cathedral. Augustine also founded the Benedictine abbey now known as St Augustine’s Abbey and, having been named the first Archbishop of the English, established Canterbury as the permanent seat of that office, a role it has held ever since.

This original Saxon church was damaged by Danish raids in 1011 and further damaged by fire in 1067, shortly after the Norman Conquest, setting the stage for a complete rebuilding under the newly appointed Norman archbishop, Lanfranc.

Lanfranc’s Romanesque Rebuilding

Archbishop Lanfranc rebuilt the cathedral almost entirely between 1070 and 1077, in the heavy round-arched Romanesque style the Normans brought with them across the Channel. His successor, Prior Ernulf, later doubled the length of the building and raised new work above a large crypt, which survives today as the oldest substantial part of the cathedral still standing. A further fire in 1174 destroyed much of the choir, prompting a fresh rebuilding campaign led by the French master mason William of Sens and, after his accidental fall from the scaffolding left him unable to continue, his successor William the Englishman — introducing the pointed arches and ribbed vaulting of Early Gothic architecture to Canterbury for the first time.

This eastward rebuilding also had a practical motive beyond architectural fashion: it created significantly more space to accommodate the huge numbers of pilgrims already flooding to Canterbury following the event that had happened here just four years earlier.

The Murder of Thomas Becket

On 29 December 1170, Archbishop Thomas Becket was murdered inside his own cathedral by four knights connected to the household of King Henry II. Becket and Henry had once been close friends — Becket served as the king’s chancellor before becoming archbishop — but the two men fell into a bitter, years-long dispute over the rights and legal privileges of the Church versus the authority of the Crown. According to tradition, an exasperated outburst from Henry, often rendered as “will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?”, was taken literally by four knights, who rode to Canterbury and struck Becket down in the cathedral as he prepared for evening prayers; one sword blow was violent enough to slice off the crown of his skull.

Becket was canonised by Pope Alexander III just three years later, in 1173, and Henry II himself performed public penance at Canterbury in 1174, walking barefoot through the city and being ritually beaten by monks at Becket’s tomb. The murder transformed Canterbury from a respected cathedral city into one of the most important pilgrimage destinations in medieval Christendom almost overnight.

Pilgrimage, the Shrine, and The Canterbury Tales

Becket was initially buried in the cathedral’s crypt, but in 1220 his remains were moved to a magnificent new shrine in a purpose-built chapel, the Trinity Chapel, upstairs in the main body of the cathedral. For over three centuries afterward, pilgrims travelled to Canterbury from across England and Europe to visit the shrine, a tradition famously fictionalised by Geoffrey Chaucer in The Canterbury Tales, in which a group of pilgrims tell each other stories on the road from London to Becket’s tomb. The Corona Chapel, built specifically to house the crown of Becket’s skull sliced off during the murder, became a particular focus of veneration.

This centuries-long cult came to an abrupt end in 1538, when Henry VIII, in the midst of the Reformation and his break from Rome, ordered Becket’s shrine destroyed and had the saint officially declared a traitor rather than a martyr. A single candle now burns permanently in the Trinity Chapel marking the spot where the shrine once stood, a quiet counterpoint to what was once one of the richest and most visited monuments in England.

The Perpendicular Nave and Bell Harry Tower

The Norman nave built under Lanfranc survived until the late 14th century, when it was demolished and entirely rebuilt starting in 1377, a project that took roughly 28 years to complete. The result is one of the finest surviving examples of English Perpendicular Gothic architecture, with tall, elegant vertical lines replacing the heavier Romanesque and Early Gothic style of the older parts of the building. The cathedral’s central tower, Bell Harry, was completed around the start of the 16th century and, at roughly 72 metres tall, remains the tallest structure in Canterbury today, visible across the surrounding countryside exactly as its builders intended.

The result of these successive rebuilding campaigns is a cathedral that visibly layers Romanesque, Early Gothic and Perpendicular Gothic architecture within a single building, rather than presenting a single, unified medieval style.

UNESCO World Heritage Status and Surviving the Blitz

On 1 June 1942, Canterbury was heavily bombed during a Luftwaffe raid that deliberately targeted the cathedral; incendiary bombs struck the roof, but volunteer fire watchers climbed up and extinguished them before serious fire damage could take hold, saving the building from the fate of many other historic English city centres bombed during the war. In 1988, Canterbury Cathedral was jointly inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site alongside the nearby ruins of St Augustine’s Abbey and St Martin’s Church, recognising more than fourteen centuries of continuous Christian history centred on this single site in Kent.

Today the cathedral remains a fully active place of worship as well as a major visitor attraction, hosting daily services, university graduations, and a working Benedictine-founded community whose roots run directly back to Augustine’s original 597 mission.

Visiting Canterbury Cathedral: Practical Information

Verified against the official Canterbury Cathedral website, checked 6 September 2026.

Canterbury Cathedral Address

Canterbury Cathedral is at Cathedral House, 11 The Precincts, Canterbury, Kent, CT1 2EH. The Precincts refers to the walled cathedral close surrounding the building itself, entered through several historic gates including Christ Church Gate on the High Street, the main pedestrian entrance for most visitors arriving in the city centre.

Canterbury Cathedral Opening Hours

Monday to Saturday, the Cathedral is open 9am to 5pm, with last admission at 4pm. On Sundays, opening is later: the grounds and shop are accessible from 11.30am, with the Cathedral church itself opening at 12.30pm and closing at 5pm (last admission 4pm). Because Canterbury Cathedral is a genuinely active working church, opening times can change at short notice for services, weddings, funerals or conservation work, so always check the live Opening Times and Closures pages immediately before travelling.

Opening hours last checked: September 2026.

Canterbury Cathedral Admission Fee

Standard sightseeing tickets are £18 between October and March, £19.50 from April to September (except weekends in July and August, when the price rises to £21). Tickets are valid for a full year from the date of purchase, so a single admission effectively becomes a season ticket if you’re staying in the area or visiting Kent more than once. Admission includes the Cathedral itself, the Precincts, gardens, the Chapter House, the Great Cloister, current exhibitions, and any talks or events taking place that day.

Prices last checked: September 2026.

Free Entry to Canterbury Cathedral

It is always free to attend a service of worship or to sit in one of the side chapels for private prayer, regardless of the sightseeing admission charge. Beyond that, several groups qualify for free sightseeing entry: children aged 17 and under when accompanied by a paying adult (up to two children per adult); full-time students at the University of Kent, Canterbury Christ Church University or the University for the Creative Arts, with valid student ID; UK residents receiving Universal Credit or Pension Credit, who can book a free ticket online; and holders of an Application Registration Card (ARC). Local residents can also apply for a Cathedral Pass, giving unlimited entry for a small annual fee, while Friends of Canterbury Cathedral members enter free as a membership benefit.

The Crypt

Canterbury’s Norman crypt, built under Prior Ernulf in the early 12th century, is the largest of its kind in England and among the oldest substantial parts of the cathedral still standing. It was here that Thomas Becket was originally buried before his remains were moved upstairs to the Trinity Chapel shrine in 1220, and it remained a site of pilgrimage in its own right for centuries afterward. In a deliberate piece of modern contrast, the artist Antony Gormley’s sculpture Transport has hung in the crypt since 2011, a striking addition to a space otherwise defined by 900-year-old stonework.

Chapter House and Great Cloister

The Chapter House, where the cathedral’s monastic and later clerical community historically met to conduct business, and the adjoining Great Cloister are both included in standard admission and well worth building time into a visit for. The Chapter House in particular is used today for lectures, concerts and civic events, giving it a genuinely active role in cathedral life rather than functioning purely as a historical set piece. Together with the cloister’s covered walkways, these spaces give a much stronger sense of the cathedral’s working monastic history than the main church alone.

Historic Graffiti

One of Canterbury Cathedral’s most distinctive, and most overlooked, features is the genuine historic graffiti carved into stonework across the building by pilgrims, masons and visitors over the centuries — initials, symbols, dates and small personal marks left by ordinary people passing through, rather than by anyone famous. The Cathedral runs dedicated tours specifically exploring this graffiti, including access to normally closed areas like the Corona Chapel and a 95-step climb up the tower, aimed at over-16s and best pre-booked given their popularity. It’s a rare chance to engage with the cathedral’s history through the marks left by anonymous visitors rather than only its named archbishops and kings.

Getting to Canterbury Cathedral and Parking

Canterbury has two mainline stations, Canterbury East and Canterbury West, both within walking distance of the cathedral and the city centre; high-speed services from London St Pancras to Canterbury West take under an hour. Parking within the Cathedral Precincts themselves is reserved for Blue Badge holders, subject to availability, but Canterbury has several public car parks within a short walk of the cathedral, since the city centre itself is largely pedestrianised.

The Canterbury World Heritage Site Combined Ticket

A combined ticket covering all three components of the UNESCO World Heritage Site — Canterbury Cathedral, St Augustine’s Abbey, and St Martin’s Church — is available to buy in person at either the Cathedral or St Augustine’s Abbey. It’s a genuinely good-value option if you’re interested in the full story of Christianity’s arrival in Anglo-Saxon England rather than just the cathedral in isolation, since the three sites are directly connected historically but sit a short walk apart in the city.

Accessibility at Canterbury Cathedral

As a working medieval building, some areas of Canterbury Cathedral, including the historic graffiti tower tour, involve steps with no lift alternative. The main Cathedral floor, Precincts and gardens are generally accessible, and Blue Badge parking is available within the Precincts subject to availability. Contact the Cathedral’s visitor team directly ahead of a visit to discuss specific access requirements, particularly for tours beyond the standard self-guided visit.

Managing Body

Canterbury Cathedral is managed by the Dean and Chapter of Canterbury, as part of the Church of England, rather than English Heritage or the National Trust. It costs the Cathedral roughly £30,000 a day to maintain and run, a cost met through visitor admission, donations and its charitable fundraising rather than direct government funding.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral?

Archbishop Thomas Becket was murdered inside Canterbury Cathedral on 29 December 1170 by four knights connected to King Henry II’s household, following a long-running dispute between Becket and the king over the rights of the Church. He was canonised as a saint just three years later.

How much does it cost to visit Canterbury Cathedral?

Standard sightseeing tickets are £18 (October–March), £19.50 (April–September, excluding July/August weekends), or £21 on July/August weekends. Tickets are valid for a full year from purchase.

Is there free entry to Canterbury Cathedral?

It’s always free to attend a service of worship or pray in a side chapel. Free sightseeing entry is also available for under-18s with a paying adult, local university students, UK Universal Credit or Pension Credit recipients, ARC holders, and Friends of the Cathedral.

When was Canterbury Cathedral founded?

The first cathedral on the site was founded in 597 AD by St Augustine, making Canterbury Cathedral the oldest cathedral in England, though the building seen today dates mainly from the 11th to 16th centuries following several rebuilding campaigns.

Can you see historic graffiti at Canterbury Cathedral?

Yes, genuine centuries-old graffiti carved by pilgrims and visitors survives across the building. Dedicated graffiti tours, including access to the usually closed Corona Chapel and a climb up the tower, are available for over-16s and are best pre-booked.

Is there parking at Canterbury Cathedral?

Parking within the Precincts is reserved for Blue Badge holders, subject to availability. Other visitors should use one of Canterbury’s public car parks within walking distance of the pedestrianised city centre.

Is Canterbury Cathedral part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site?

Yes. Canterbury Cathedral was jointly inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1988 alongside the nearby St Augustine’s Abbey and St Martin’s Church, recognising over 1,400 years of continuous Christian history in Canterbury.

Canterbury Cathedral’s medieval pilgrimage story sits well alongside Leeds Castle and Dover Castle for a fuller Kent itinerary, both a short drive away. Browse the full Churches & Cathedrals collection, or see our England guide for the wider country this history belongs to.