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.

Believed to be an Anglo-Saxon site, but little direct evidence.

The church was extended in 1871-72 by the addition of a N aisle designed by Charles Beazley. The N arcade reused columns and arches from St Mary Magdalene, Burgate, which was being demolished at the same time. The S arcade appears to have been rebuilt to match (Canterbury Journal, 30 March 1872, 3). Photographs of the damaged church prior to demolition show that the five-bay S arcade had squared multi-scallop capitals on circular piers (Historic England Archive, red boxes). The polygonal font was ringed by Early English colonnettes with moulded capitals and bases.

Given that the rest of the tower fabric is 15thc, it is likely that the stonework of the doorway was re-set and adapted at an unknown date. It appears to date from the mid-12thc.