Canterbury Cathedral, St Augustine's Abbey and St Martin's Church: the three-part World Heritage Site

Three places, three keepers

Canterbury's World Heritage Site is not one attraction. The UK National Commission for UNESCO lists it as Canterbury Cathedral, St Augustine's Abbey and St Martin's Church, inscribed in 1988, and tells it as one story: Augustine's mission from Rome landing in Kent in 597, a church already used by a Christian queen, a monastery and a cathedral.[7] On the ground they are three separate places, each with its own keeper and its own terms.

• Canterbury Cathedral is a working cathedral. Its ticket terms name the Chapter of Canterbury Cathedral as the body that manages it on behalf of the Church of England.[4] It calls itself the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the seat of the Archbishop of Canterbury.[5]
• St Augustine's Abbey is a ruin and site museum run by English Heritage.[8]
• St Martin's Church is a parish church, part of the Parish of St Martin & St Paul in the Church of England.[10]

For the city, see Canterbury.

Canterbury Cathedral: a ticket that lasts a year

The cathedral sells sightseeing entry online or on the day at its Visitor Centre. Its Plan your visit page lists what a sightseeing ticket includes: entry to the cathedral, precincts and gardens, exhibitions, mini talks, activity trails and visitor events.[2] The terms of entry say visitor tickets are "multi-day tickets", valid for 365 days from booking for repeat visits to the cathedral and precincts during normal opening times, but not for evening admission or separately ticketed events.[4] The Plan your visit page describes the same thing as an annual pass valid for one year from booking.[2]

Worship is separate from sightseeing. According to Canterbury Cathedral's Plan your visit page, it is always free to attend a service of worship or to come into one of the chapels to pray.[2] The terms add that sightseeing entry may be suspended in parts or all of the cathedral during services, some arranged at short notice.[4]

The cathedral publishes concessions on the same page, including free entry for local Cathedral Pass holders and Friends of the cathedral, and free tickets for UK residents receiving Universal Credit or Pension Credit.[2] Its terms warn that only tickets bought from the cathedral or authorised parties are valid.[4]

Closures, and other rules in the terms

According to Canterbury Cathedral's closures page, the cathedral or parts of it are closed at times for services, special events or conservation work, and the page keeps a dated list of forthcoming closures of the nave, crypt, quire and chapels with a request to check it on the day of the visit.[3] The Plan your visit page notes that on Sundays the grounds open before the cathedral church itself.[2] XTOUR does not repeat the hours; they are on those pages and are subject to change.

The terms of entry also say no suitcases or large bags may be brought into the cathedral, and that no filming or photography is permitted in the Crypt. They describe the Precincts as private property, and note that there may be times when the Precincts are open free of charge while a ticket is still needed for the cathedral.[4]

What the cathedral says about itself

The cathedral's Our story page gives its founding as "by St Augustine in 597 AD" and a timeline of the building that followed: a rebuilding under Archbishop Lanfranc, a new quire over the crypt, a quire rebuilt after a fire with the Trinity and Corona chapels added, Lanfranc's nave demolished and rebuilt, the Bell Harry Tower, and the destruction of Becket's shrine by Henry VIII. Thomas Becket was murdered in the cathedral on 29 December 1170; the cathedral says Canterbury was already a site of pilgrimage, but St Thomas' shrine elevated it to "one of the most important in medieval Christendom".[5]

The UK National Commission for UNESCO's page puts it differently, saying the cathedral building "was built around 597 AD" and "houses the first tomb" of Becket.[7] XTOUR's reading is that the cathedral's own timeline, a foundation in 597 followed by centuries of rebuilding, is the more precise account of the building you see; the Commission's sentence compresses that history.

St Augustine's Abbey

English Heritage's page says the abbey was "Founded in AD 598 by St Augustine himself", on land given by King Ethelbert of Kent after his conversion, as the first monastery in Anglo-Saxon England. Its site museum traces how the Saxon monastery was rebuilt by the Normans and later became a Tudor royal palace.[8] The UK National Commission's page adds that the abbey was created as a burial place for the Anglo-Saxon kings of Kent, and mentions a virtual reality view of the abbey as it looked in the early 1500s.[7]

English Heritage's prices page says tickets are valid all day, are free for English Heritage members, and are cheaper when booked by midnight the day before.[9] For members of other heritage bodies, see the membership guide.

St Martin's Church

St Martin's is a working church. Its Church of England listing, on St Martin's Hill, says it is "the oldest church in the English speaking world still used for regular worship" and that it welcomes many pilgrims and tourists.[10] The UK National Commission for UNESCO's page uses two phrases: its introduction calls St Martin's the oldest church in the English-speaking world, and its section on the church describes it as the oldest parish church in England still in continuous use, first the private chapel of the Christian Queen Bertha of Kent in the 6th century, where Augustine and his companions worshipped in 597 before King Ethelbert granted land for the abbey and cathedral.[7] Canterbury Cathedral's own Plan your visit page calls it "the oldest church in the country".[2] These descriptions measure age in different ways, and XTOUR repeats each as its publisher's.

XTOUR has not read a page that sets visiting hours for St Martin's and does not state them.

A joint ticket, described differently

English Heritage advertises a combined ticket. Its abbey page says a Canterbury World Heritage Pass covers St Augustine's Abbey, Canterbury Cathedral and St Martin's Church and can be booked online or bought on the day at the abbey or the cathedral.[8] Its prices page calls the same thing "joint visit tickets" and tells visitors to get them "at admissions".[9] The cathedral pages XTOUR read on 11 October 2026 do not mention a joint ticket; the cathedral's Talks & Tours page invites visitors to "Explore all three sites" without saying how entry to the other two works.[6]

XTOUR's reading is that the joint ticket is English Heritage's description: the abbey page says it can be booked online or bought at the abbey or the cathedral, the prices page mentions only buying it at admissions, and the cathedral pages XTOUR read do not mention it.[6][9][8] Check with the cathedral or the abbey before relying on it.

What XTOUR does not know

• XTOUR does not publish current prices or opening hours for any of the three; the cathedral and English Heritage publish them and change them.
• Whether the cathedral itself confirms the Canterbury World Heritage Pass; only English Heritage's pages describe it.
• Visiting hours and any charge at St Martin's Church.
• Travel times between the three, or to Canterbury. XTOUR has no routing data.