Westgate , Canterbury The Westgate is a medieval gatehouse in Canterbury , Kent , England . This 60 - foot - high western gate of the city wall is the largest surviving city gate in England . Built of Kentish ragstone around 1379 , it is the last survivor of Canterbury ' s seven medieval gates , still well - preserved and one of the city ' s most distinctive landmarks . The road still passes between its drum towers , and there is just enough room for a double - decker bus to pass beneath . This scheduled monument and Grade I listed building houses the hundred - year - old West Gate Towers Museum , which as of July 2011 was open every day from 10am to 4 : 30pm , although it is currently closed for legal reasons . Access to the museum and roof is via spiral staircases only . Gateway building . Building history . Canterbury was walled by the Romans around 300 AD . This has been consistently the most important of the city ' s gates as it is the London Road entrance and the main entrance from most of Kent . The present towers are a medieval replacement of the Roman west gate , rebuilt around 1380 . There was a gate here at the time of the Norman conquest , which is thought to have been Roman . From late Anglo - Saxon times it had the Church of the Holy Cross on top , but both church and gate were dismantled in 1379 , and the gate was rebuilt by Archbishop Simon Sudbury before he died in the Peasants ' Revolt of 1381 . It has been suggested that it was built primarily as an entrance for pilgrims visiting the shrine of St Thomas Becket at the cathedral . However the rebuild as a defensive status symbol was paid for partly by Sudbury and partly by taxation for military protection against expected raids by the French . It has been suggested that the spiral staircases were built to the disadvantage of defenders going downstairs who would have had to fight invaders climbing up to their right : difficult with a one - handed sword in the right hand . It is expensively faced in coursed ashlar of Kentish ragstone . It has battered plinths to the drum towers , battlement s , machicolation s and eighteen gunloops : a high number for a gateway , and among the earliest gunholes in Britain . The gunloops would have been added by the beginning of the fifteenth century . It had a drawbridge over the Stour , a portcullis and wooden doors . The gateway has three floors . The ground floor was designed so that the gateway and vaulted passage had entrances to the towers on each side . Each tower had a ground - floor room with fireplace and four gunloops . The north tower ' s ground - floor room had a spiral staircase to upper floors . The first floor contains a large room with fireplace and , originally , the portcullis mechanism over the vaulted entranceway . This room had doors to the upper room of each tower , each with fireplace and three gunloops , and a northern door to a spiral staircase leading to the roof . Repairs were carried out due to an invasion scare during the 1470s and 1480s . In 1491 or 1492 a large , two - light , transomed , perpendicular east window was added to the large first - floor room , with a view towards the cathedral and along St Peter ' s Street . The roof over the large first - floor central room has a battlemented parapet walk , originally with access to the tops of both towers and machicolations , as well as to the two low chambers , each with two gunports , in the tops of both towers . This part of the tower was less well - built than the lower storeys , either due to haste during the Peasants ' Revolt or because it was built later . In 1793−1794 the hall over the gate was split into three and the present square lantern added to the roof , along with the wooden doors and cell linings which are visible today ; the cost was £400 . The city walls joined the gateway at the back of the drum towers , but this part of the wall was removed in the nineteenth century . Following this , in 1823−1829 , a jailer ' s house was built on the north side , and this became a police station and is now a music school . The disused iron bridge which connects the Westgate with the music school dates from this time . Contemporary with this work was the building of St Peter ' s Place on the south side of the Westgate , along with passages around the Westgte and a new road across the Stour , to cope with increased traffic , which has been damaging the arch of the building for one hundred and fifty years . At the end of the 19th century the Westgate was a temporary repository for the city archive s until the museum was opened in 1906 . It is the largest surviving city gate in England . Social history . Canterbury ' s mayor and corporation were grateful to this martyr to the Revolt who had built them an additional attraction for pilgrims , and they would pray at his tomb or under the Westgate . The head of the rebellious Bluebeard the Hermit was displayed on Westgate in 1450 after he was caught by local people and sent to Henry VI . It is thought that Geoffrey Chaucer may have undertaken a pilgrimage and passed through the gate . In 1648 after the Christmas Day riot , Parliamentarians burnt down all the wooden doors of the city ' s gates . They were all replaced in 1660 , but these replacements were removed at the end of the eighteenth century . They were similar to the surviving wooden at the cathedral . Royalty have entered the city through the gate , including George VI in 1948 . In 1453 Henry VI permitted the Mayor and Commonality to keep a jail at the Westgate , so the building was Canterbury ' s prison from the 15th to the 19th century , while Canterbury Castle was the county jail . After repairs to the Westgate and jail in 1667 , a pound was built on the north side ; this is now gone , but Pound Lane remains . The guard rooms , heavily wood - lined in the eighteenth century , became cells for both debtors and criminals , and the room over the arch became the condemned cell with the portcullis now laid on top . Until 1775 there was a grated cage in the prison gateway , where certain prisoners were allowed to beg for alms and speak with passers by . Capital punishment was normally the gallows , plus the stake at Wincheap for religious martyrs in the time of Queen Mary . Listing details . It is a Grade I listed building , HER number TR15NW155 at grid reference TR14595808 . It is listed as a Roman site 43−409 AD ; the site of the medieval Church of the Holy Cross 1066−1539 AD ; the medieval gate built around 1400 AD . Only the gateway , currently in use as a museum , is standing . Buffs Regimental Museum . The Buffs Regimental Museum was inside West Gate Towers around 1960 , before it removed to the Beaney . The director of Army Museums Ogilby Trust Dr Alan Guy says that the trust has long been interested in re - occupying the West Gate Towers , especially while its archives are partly held in storage in Canterbury , pending the re - opening of the Beaney in 2012 . Meanwhile the archives of the Queen ' s Own Royal West Kent Regiment are ensconced in Maidstone Museum , in mid - Kent . Museum . Management . The museum was leased by Canterbury City Council to a private partnership in April 2011 . Exhibits . The present museum was established in 1906 , and it currently displays weapon ry in the guard chamber between the towers above the road . In recent years the towers were also open on Sunday afternoons . The roof of one of the towers is accessible via a spiral staircase , and from there an extended view of Canterbury is visible from between the battlement s . Exhibits include armaments from the English Civil War to World War II , original prison cells and murder holes by which defenders could kill enemies entering the gateway : boiling oil , molten lead , cannon balls and other material were dropped . The holes are now covered with thick glass , and cars and buses can be seen passing below . Replica armour is available for children to try on . Magna Carta maquettes . These are seventeen six - foot , painted , plaster - cast maquette s for the sixteen bronze barons and two bishops which today stand in the Lords Chamber at Westminster Palace ; cast in 1847−1851 . These were made by various named sculptors , and represent the men who signed the Magna Carta : each of the fifteen barons and two bishops is named at the base . In 1908 three of the maquettes were displayed in the museum ( see photo below ) , and two remain on show . The rest were put in storage and forgotten in the ground floor room of the north tower in 1987 , along with several other museum exhibits , before being brought to the attention of museum staff in May 2008 after the building was flooded . The City of Canterbury museums department was said to have been attempting to remove them to safety for restoration , but was inhibited by logistics and funding . The maquettes could have been left here because Archbishop of Canterbury Stephen Langton was one of the bishops who signed the Magna Carta , leading to Canterbury being a charter town . As of May 2011 , ten of the maquettes in the basement have been photographed ; the fate of the remaining five is unknown . The sculptors of the maquettes are as follows : Events and exhibitions . In 2001 the museum held an exhibition on the Baedeker raids of World War II . Museum access . Rail : Canterbury West ; Canterbury East Buses : National Express ; Stagecoach ; Canterbury bus station Road closure trial . A traffic management trial in the St Dunstans area of Canterbury took place from 27 March 2012 . This included the temporary banning of traffic from passing through the Westgate . Projected closure . Having had its opening times reduced to just one day per week , the museum was under threat of closure as of 2009 , pending a decision by Canterbury City Council on 18 February 2010 . This caused widespread controversy . In the event the Council voted to close the museums in 2011 , but said it would fund them for the financial year 2010−2011 whilst working with other organisations to examine ways of keeping the museums open . Re - opening . Westgate Towers Museum was re - opened in April 2011 under the directorship of the late Charles Lambie , who was also chairman of the trustees of Canterbury Archaeological Trust . Opening Hours are 10am to 4 : 30pm , every day . The museum will from July 2011 include a cafe with a glass roof set in the adjoining former 1830s jail which will provide a new extension to the museum . This extension will provide a physical respresentation of the prison reform movement , in proximity of both the earlier medieval cells and later 1830 cells which have remained largely unaltered . From July 2011 the museum became open every day once again . However , it was temporarily closed for legal reasons as of January 25 , 2012 .