Entertainment in Canterbury

Dive into the Medieval world of Chaucer at the Canterbury Tales which celebrates the novelist’s stories through an interactive series of recreated scenes, in-character actors and pilgrims and some gory sights and sounds. The tales recreate five of Chaucer’s epic works, guiding you through tales of love, death, courtship and more with costumed guides vividly bringing history to life. The Tales first launched in 1988 and have been one of the city’s best-known attractions. The attraction is just to the north of Whitefriars in the heart of Canterbury and is open year-round with reduced opening times from November to March when it’s open Wednesday to Sunday.

A wonderfully modern space that reopened in 2011 after an extensive rebuild, The Marlowe Theatre is a 1,200 capacity venue that’s hosted big-names like Elvis Costello, Van Morrison and Ray Davies as well as the National Theatre and the Northern Ballet. The theatre has a wonderfully varied programme of events spanning orchestral concerts, musicals, live music, stand-up comedy, children’s show and ballet, with three performance spaces in total. The three-tiered theatre offers impressive views of the large stage with events on most nights of the week, while the in-house café and restaurant The Green Room is on hand for breakfast, lunch and dinner as well as snacks and drinks.

One of the 18 First Class cricket clubs in England, Kent County Cricket Club were founded in 1841 and have won the County Championship seven times. Home games are played from April until September each year at the St Lawrence Ground to the south of the city centre and a Thor-hit six from our Canterbury City Centre hotel. As well as the four-day Championship, Kent play in in the Twenty20 cup competition and one-day cup games which draw a big crowd to their 7,000-capacity ground, especially for the evening T20 games which are often held after work under the floodlights. Famous ex-players include Derek Underwood, Colin Cowdrey, Rahul Dravid and Steve Waugh, with current players Sam Billings and Joe Denly regular England internationals.