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Conquest House
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2005
1996

Conquest House
(Photo 1996)

Conquest House is a particularly fine building, it is reputed to be the place where the knights waited before going out and giving Thomas Becket that fatal seeing-to.

The house was owned by Gilbert the Citizen. The four knights arrived here on 29th December, 1170 and left their arms and servants. Two of the knights broke into the Archbishop's Palace where there was a heated argument with Becket. They failed to get him to revoke the excommunication on many of the king's supporters. The knights returned to this house to get their weapons, while monks persuaded Becket to seek sanctury in the Cathedral. The knights then entered the Cathedral and killed him.

The house looked very different then, but if you enter the building, there is a fine Norman undercroft that possibly dates back to that time.


The Canterbury Tour, a unique virtual walk around this ancient city Peter Collinson
This page last changed on 18th November 2018.
Photograph June 1996. © Copyright Peter Collinson, All rights reserved.