This building was originally the home of Sir John Boys who founded the Jesus Hospital in Northgate. There is a bust of Sir John, an Elizabethan lawyer, in the Cathedral. More recently, the building has been used as a shop by the King's School, a well known British Public School, the main buildings of which are located in the Precincts of the Cathedral. (For those that do not know, a "public" school in England is actually a private school. Don't ask me why, I just grew up with it being a fact of life!)

Although it is not very clear from the picture, the building has been "leaning" further and further to the North East as the years go by. This resulted in the front door having a most peculiar angle when looked at face on. It got to the point in 1989 that the building was unsafe and was very close to total collapse. During the process of renovations the twisted chimney that ran up through the centre of the building actually gave up the ghost and several tons of red brick ended up in the basement. A desciption of this process is very well documented on the Hillside Tour of Canterbury under the new pages written by the local Archaeological Society.

Back to the previous page.

Back to the opening page.