Whitefriars Shopping Centre is a

shopping centre A shopping center (American English) or shopping centre (Commonwealth English), also called a shopping complex, shopping arcade, shopping plaza or galleria, is a group of shops built together, sometimes under one roof. The first known collec ...

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

History

The Whitefriars Shopping Quarter is situated on the site of a former

multi-storey car park A multistorey car park (British and Singapore English) or parking garage (American English), also called a multistory, parking building, parking structure, parkade (mainly Canadian), parking ramp, parking deck or indoor parking, is a build ...

and the Ricemans

department store A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store made a dramatic app ...

. Following the demolition of these buildings a new multi storey carpark and a Fenwick department store were constructed. A "Big Dig" archaeological excavation was carried out on the site by

Canterbury Archaeological Trust Canterbury Archaeological Trust (CAT) is an independent charity formed in 1975 to undertake rescue excavation, research, publication and the presentation of the results of its work for the benefit of the public. The Trust's main activities are ...

in conjunction with Channel 4's television programme ''

Time Team ''Time Team'' is a British television programme that originally aired on Channel 4 from 16 January 1994 to 7 September 2014. It returned online in 2022 for two episodes released on YouTube. Created by television producer Tim ...

'' from 2000–2003, unearthing mostly Roman and Mediaeval finds. The Marlowe Arcade is built on the site of a theatre that opened shortly before

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. It was converted to the Central Picture Cinema in the 1920s and reopened as the first Marlowe Theatre in 1949, originally for amateur dramatics and then repertory. After financial difficulties in 1981, it was demolished in 1982.

Whitefriars

The Whitefriars shopping centre is made up of shops mainly spread over two floors, but with some shops over three floors. The multi-storey car park is in the same block as Tesco, with two bridges between the carpark,

Primark Primark Stores Limited (; trading as Penneys in the Republic of Ireland) is an Irish multinational fast fashion retailer with headquarters in Dublin, Ireland. It has stores across Europe and in the United States. The Penneys brand is not u ...

and

Marks and Spencer Marks and Spencer Group plc (commonly abbreviated to M&S and colloquially known as Marks's or Marks & Sparks) is a major British multinational retailer with headquarters in Paddington, London that specialises in selling clothing, beauty, home ...

. The layout of the centre consists mainly of squares, namely Rose Square, Clocktower Square and Whitefriars Square, small streets and arcade. An older part of the centre is part of the high street. The three floors are connected by two main lifts, in the stair room and Fenwicks. There are public toilets and facilities in Fenwick, Eat, Cafe Nero, Costa and Marks and Spencer. Whitefriars Shopping Centre is adjacent to Canterbury Bus Station. The Marlowe arcade is the only part of the centre with a full roof, and contains more specialised shops. In late 2012, it was announced that the arcade would be renamed 'Whitefriars Arcade', a move which has received criticism from some locals.

References

Shopping centres in Kent Buildings and structures in Canterbury

External links

Official website
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171117091611/http://www.whitefriars-canterbury.co.uk/ , date=17 November 2017