The Canterbury Tales: The Canterbury Tales

Published on 12:16pm 02/24/2008 by tashaway

St. Margaret's Street
CT1 2TG Canterbury

Tel: 01227 454888

Website: The Canterbury Tales

Museum, Gallery, Exhibition in Canterbury

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My name is tashaway. I'm 29 years old, female and currently in London, United Kingdom.

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If you’re a bit of a literature geek like I am, then Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales is one of the first things that comes to mind when thinking about the city of Canterbury in the South East of England.

Even though Chaucer wasn’t from Canterbury, the town seems to have claimed him (or at least his tales) as their own, and in the centre of the city, you can find a Canterbury Tales tourist attraction which retells some of the more popular tales by means of animatronics and audio guides (available in a number of different languages).

Unfortunately, when we visited in February 2008, they’d just implemented a new audio system, which meant that the audio and the lighting of each scene was out of sync. As we heard an introduction to each of the characters – the knight, the miller, the wife of Bath, and so on – the lights shone on a different character entirely, which was kind of confusing.

I’m not sure what this attraction is like in summer or other peak times, but during our visit on a winter Sunday morning, it was practically empty. This allowed us to walk around the room and take a closer look at the details of each scene.

While the stories themselves were entertaining, I couldn’t help feeling – as I did in some parts of Disneyland – that animatronics are slightly dated, and that there could’ve been a greater use of more modern multimedia elements to bring the stories alive. It all seemed a bit simple to justify the entry charge of £7.75 per adult.

The Canterbury Tales is located in a converted church on St Margaret’s Street. There’s a shop at the end of the ‘pilgrimage’ where you can pick up a copy of Chaucer’s work or other themed merchandise.

Alternatively, within 10 minutes, you can make your own trip to Canterbury Cathedral and see the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket as Chaucer’s pilgrims intended to hundreds of years ago.

Tags for this Travel Tip: literature history uk canterbury

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