The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain & Ireland
St George the Martyr (medieval)
Parish church, former
The parish church of St George, Canterbury, famous as the baptism place of the playwright Christopher Marlowe in 1564, lay on the N side of St George's Street. It was badly bombed in June 1942, during the Second World War, and subsequently demolished with the exception of the W (clock) tower. This was reprieved at the last minute (according to one conservation architect, demolition of the parapet had started before it was reversed and saved). The tower had been altered over the centuries, with a stair turret having been removed in the late 18thc, and with some tidying up doubtless needed following the demolition of the rest of the church around 1955. It preserves a Romanesque W doorway.