Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Grade II* listed building. Main construction periods 1500 to 1949 77-79 St Dunstan's St

Monument Types

• HOUSE (Medieval to Modern - 1500 AD to 2050 AD)

Full description

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Description from record TR 15 NW 76:
No 77 (Part of Rose and Crown Inn) Nos 78 and 79 St Dunstan's Street. [TR 14485815-OS 1:2500 1957] Grade II*. Originally one house. A 16th century timber-framed building with a plastered front restored at the end of the 19th century. 3 storeys and 3 gables. The 1st and 2nd floors overhang the 2nd floor resting on a particularly heavy moulded beam and carved brackets. Bay windows on the first. Modern shopfronts. (1) Additional bibliography. (2) The Star Inn, St Dunstan's St, which faces the opening of Station West Road [TR 14475816] was about to be destroyed 'when it was drawn in 1947'. This was apparently true of the rear of the building but the gabled front, though modernized, still stands. Inserted into a modern wall at the back of the building is a stone plaque dated 1576. The portion to the west is now the Rose and Crown public house. (3) [TR 14475816] Star Inn [NAT]. (4) No 77 St Dunstan's Street. One bay of three bay 16th century house. 19th century exterior. (5) Nos 78 and 78 St Dunstan's Street. Two bays of a 16th century timber- framed house. (6)

The Canterbury UAD states that The Starr was quite an old inn. It was included in the 1692 Licensing List and in the following year the Billeting List gave the inn six soldiers. There was a mention in the 18th century of the 'Sign of the Star' and it was mentioned in the Parish Books.

By 1843 it had ceased to be an inn and later in the century (around 1875) the building became three separate premises. The Rose and Crown expanded to include one part, another became a grocer's shop and the third an outfitter's. The façade of the building was blasted during a Second World War air raid but a good restoration job restored the timber framed façade to its pre-war condition.

For a considerable time after the war two parts of the building became Flisher's grocery shop and then a Chinese restaurant. The whole building (apart from the extended Rose & Crown) is now a Hospice Charity Shop.

The three parts of The Starr were divided as follows:
Directory for 1930: No. 77 Thomas Page Star's Place
No. 78 John Wootton Grocer
No. 79 Miss Ethel Bland Draper

Directory for 1940: No. 77 Thomas Page Star's Place
No. 78 H J Flisher Grocer
No. 79 Miss Ethel Bland Draper

It is recorded that in the 15th century a Mayor of the City named William Bygge owned, 'a tenement called the Starre … In the parish of Holy Cross, Westgate'.

The following text is from the original listed building designation:
1. 944 ST DUNSTAN'S STREET (South West Side)
No 77 (Part of Rose & Crown Inn) Nos 78 & 79 TR 1458 SW 1/120 3.12.49.
II* GV
2. Originally one house. A C16 timber-framed building with a plastered front restored at the end of the C19. 3 storeys and 3 gables. The 1st and 2nd floors overhang the 2nd floor resting on a particularly heavy moulded beam and carved brackets. Bay windows on the 1st floor. Modern shopfronts.
Nos 67 to 81 (consec) form a group.
Listing NGR: TR1447758155 (8)

<1> DOE (HHR) City of Canterbury Kent Sept 1973 221 (OS Card Reference). SKE40055.

<2> BOE NE and E Kent 1983 255 (J Newman) (OS Card Reference). SKE38227.

<3> Arch Cant 55 1942 73-77 illus (D Gardiner) (OS Card Reference). SKE35289.

<4> OS 1:500 1874 (OS Card Reference). SKE48230.

<5> Hist Builds Survey Cant City Council/RCHME 57035 4 of 29 (OS Card Reference). SKE43888.

<6> Hist Builds Survey Cant City Council/RCHME 57035 5 0f 29 (OS Card Reference). SKE43889.

<7> Wilmot, E., 1992, Eighty Lost Inns of Canterbury (Monograph). SKE29747.

<8> English Heritage, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest (Map). SKE16160.

Sources and further reading