Canterbury Cathedral Lodge Hotel
Recently I was booked for a 9 day court case in Canterbury. The High Speed train from St Pancras takes 54 minutes. The slower, slightly cheaper train takes 1.5 hours. But either way it’s a schlep to get there from London, not to mention, exhausting.
So I decided I’d book a place to stay, for a couple of days, in the historic walled city.
I’d stayed, before, in a couple of good bed and breakfast guest houses. This time, I saw glowing reviews for the Canterbury Cathedral Lodge Hotel. I decided to give it a go.
What a good decision!

The hotel is set in the grounds of the majestic cathedral and the lower ground rooms offer a view of it. It’s £10 cheaper to stay in the Annex but the rooms are three floors up and there’s no lift. So, I paid the £100 per night for a room with a view. The price included breakfast and entry to the cathedral.
The lodge has 36 rooms, 28 in the Main Hotel building and 6 in the Annex. It also boasts a small cinema and theatre, part of ‘AV Theatre’, which is one of the Event spaces. The hotel hosts conferences, weddings, graduations and all manner of meetings.
The first night I stayed, I arrived late in the evening. Canterbury, being a sleepy place, had gone to bed. I asked if I could get a sandwich. It arrived, very nicely presented with crisps and a glass of orange juice. It may not sound a big deal but it reflects the superb service the staff provide generally. They make you feel special.
I ate my late night sandwich it in the lovely lounge which has its own bar and got chatting to another guest. She turned out to be a fascinating lady from Haworth in Yorkshire. At some point one of the night managers who had made me the sandwich, joined the conversation. And despite being tired, I spent two hours chatting and listening to fascinating stories about the history of the lodge and the great and good guests it has hosted over the years. Favourite guests included the Osmond Brothers who were so nice they got a midnight tour of the cathedral.
It was an effort to tear myself away from my new friends but I eventually wandered down the corridor to my room, passing the very friendly and helpful staff at the reception desk.
The room was warm and comfortable, the bed a good size. My gratitude on seeing an iron and ironing board, tucked away in a corner of the room, was immense. It’s usually such a mission to get an iron in most hotels, these days.






I took a photo of the cathedral from the window in the early morning light, the next day and went to the spacious dining room for breakfast.

To the gentle accompaniment of classic FM, I studied the menu. It’s extensive.
You can choose several items from a long list under Continental Breakfast, including cereals, pastries, croissants, toast, porridge, granola and more. And then you get to choose a cooked breakfast too!
I didn’t have a great appetite so couldn’t make the most of it but what I did choose was delicious, fresh and beautifully presented.
On my last day I quickly popped into the cathedral before going to court. It happened to be graduation day for students of the nearby university. So, some parts of the cathedral were closed to the public but the sections I was able to see were magnificent. Truly awe inspiring. Among the dignitaries attending the Graduation ceremony to hand out degrees I spotted a smiling Floella Benjamin.





I’ve been raving about the hotel to colleagues who regularly do long cases in Canterbury and are always looking for recommendations for where to stay.
This is not a paid post. But I can’t recommend the Canterbury Cathedral Lodge Hotel enough.
It’s a 5 minute walk from the Magistrates Court and 10 from the Family Court.
