Venue Type & Location
Performance Spaces
Overview
Located NW of the Cathedral, the Great Hall of the palace was second in size and splendour only to the royal hall at Westminster Palace. Entrance was through a projecting arched porch on the N side of the 4th western bay with a chamber above. The solar lay beyond at the high (E) end of the hall.
The Great Hall porch with the adjacent W bay and lower section beyond is built into the N side of 18th c. Walpole House. The eastern 2 and a half bays of the S wall of the hall, parts of the detached medieval kitchen and the N side of the 15th c. N-S range have been incorporated into later buildings.
Performance History
Probable performance venue. Entertainers under the patronage of successive Archbishops of Canterbury from the 14th to the 16th c. performed elsewhere in Kent.
Current Status
History of the Venue
ca. 1080 First palace, consisting of a hall, with a porch on the N, a kitchen to the W and the archbishop's private chamber to the E, built by Archbishop Lanfranc immediately W of the NW tower of the Cathedral.
ca. 1200 An enormous new hall in the new Gothic style started by Archbishop Walter further to the N. A detached kitchen on the N side of the W end of the hall was part of the design.
1220 Completed by Archbishop Stephen Langton.
1226 Adjoining E range with buttery, pantry and priory frater rebuilt.
15th c. Extensive rebuilding including the N-S range linking the Great Hall with Lanfranc's hall.
1543 Serious fire damage caused Archbishop Cranmer to relocate to a newly acquired palace at Bekesbourne.
1560--6 Extensive repairs and enlargement in red brick commissioned by Archbishop Parker. 13th c. kitchen replaced by smaller kitchens and other service rooms; vaulted roof of the medieval kitchen removed and a brewhouse built in its W end.
1645 Archbishop Laud beheaded; the office of archbishop of Canterbury abolished and all estates confiscated by Parliament.
ca. 1650 Main walls of the Great hall and other buildings in the Palace precinct demolished. A sunken garden was created within the ruins of the hall. A small building was constructed behind the porch.
1781 17th c. house behind the porch of the Great Hall rebuilt by John Monins (now known as Walpole House). Subsequently the sunken garden on the was site filled in and the remains of the E wall of the hall demolished. New garden created on levelled ground.
1899--1901 A new smaller residence S of the hall ruins was built for Archbishop Frederick Temple. Part of the N-S range of the original Norman palace is incorporated in this later residence.
Record Source
REED Kent: Diocese of Canterbury 1.48, 57, 65--7, 69-71; 2.336--7, 612, 614, 655--6, 658, 662, 664, 735--6
Patrons who owned this venue
[No data found.]
Bibliographic Sources
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- Quiney, Anthony. English Domestic Architecture: Kent Houses. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Antique Collectors' Club, 1993
- Rady, J., T. Tatton-Brown and J.A. Bowen. 'The Archbishop's Palace, Canterbury'. Journal of the British Archaeological Association 144 (1991): 1--60.
- Rady, John. 'Interim Report on Excavation in 1982 by the Canterbury Archaeological Trust: 6. Archbishop's Palace, Canterbury'. Archaeologia Cantiana 98 (1982): 230--3.
- Somner, William. The Antiquities of Canterbury. Or A Svrvey of that Ancient Citie, with the Svbvrbs, and Cathedrall. London: Richard Thrale, 1640
- Tatton-Brown, Tim. The Archbishop's Palace. Canterbury: Canterbury Archaeological Trust, 1994
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- Thompson, Michael. Medieval Bishops' Houses in England and Wales. Aldershot: Ashgate, 1998
- Willis, Robert. The Architectural History of the Conventual Buildings of the Monastery of Christ Church in Canterbury. London: Kent Archaeological Society, 1869
- Willis, Robert. 'The Architectural History of the Conventual Buildings of the Monastery of Christ Church in Canterbury'. Archaeologia Cantiana 1--206.