Canterbury's city walls around the cathedral precincts are on the 2026 Heritage at Risk Register, rated declining. Eastbridge Hospital is listed too.
The medieval city walls that wrap around Canterbury Cathedral’s precincts are now on Historic England’s Heritage at Risk Register. The 2026 register was published on Thursday.
The entry covers the north-east quadrant of the walls, the stretch that runs along Broad Street and encloses the cathedral grounds. Historic England rates its condition as “generally unsatisfactory with major localised problems”, and says the trend is declining.
What the register says
Historic England’s entry for the walls records:
- Condition: generally unsatisfactory with major localised problems
- Trend: declining
- Vulnerability: medium
- Priority: B, meaning an action plan or strategy has been agreed but not yet carried out
- Ownership: local authority
- Protection: a scheduled monument, with four listed buildings, part of a grade II registered park and garden, a conservation area and the World Heritage Site
The walls are scheduled as list entry 1003554. They were not among the district’s entries in the 2025 register data that Historic England supplies to the government’s planning data service, so this is a new listing.
Eastbridge Hospital is on the list too
Eastbridge Hospital on the High Street is also on the 2026 register. The grade I building is rated “poor” and declining. Its priority category is B, which Historic England describes as an “immediate risk of further rapid deterioration or loss of fabric” where a solution has been agreed but not yet put in place. It is owned by a charity. It was also missing from the 2025 data.
Every entry in the Canterbury district
A search of the register for Canterbury returns 14 entries in the district:
| Entry | Type |
|---|---|
| Canterbury City Walls (north-east quadrant enclosing cathedral precincts) | Scheduled monument |
| Eastbridge Hospital, High Street | Grade I listed |
| Monuments in the precinct of Canterbury Cathedral | Scheduled monument |
| Greyfriars Monastery, Stour Street | Scheduled monument |
| Dane John Mound and Roman and medieval remains, Dane John Garden | Scheduled monument |
| Church of St Martin, Herne | Grade I listed |
| Church of St Mary the Virgin, Chislet | Grade I listed |
| Church of St Bartholomew, Herne Bay | Grade II listed |
| Horton Manor Chapel, Chartham | Scheduled monument |
| Dovecote at Burnt House Farm, Chartham | Scheduled monument |
| Barn at Hardres Court, Upper Hardres | Grade II* listed |
| Enclosures west of Woodlands, Adisham | Scheduled monument |
| Anglo-Saxon cemetery on Hanging Hill, Bridge | Scheduled monument |
| Rubury Butts bowl barrows, Womenswold and Nonington | Scheduled monument |
Source: Historic England Heritage at Risk Register, searched 5 November 2026.
The national picture
Across England, Historic England said 197 buildings and sites were added to the register over the past year, and 85 were rescued and removed.
The nearest new addition it named is Charles Dickens’ writing chalet in Rochester, about 25 miles west of Canterbury. It says the Swiss chalet has “become increasingly fragile and needs repair”.
What it means for you
Being on the register does not close anything. The walls along Broad Street and the cathedral precincts stay as they are. The listing is Historic England’s way of flagging the places in most need of help.
It can also open the door to money. Historic England runs a Heritage at Risk Capital Fund, paid for by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, for repairs to sites on the register. The register itself does not say what work is planned on the walls, what it would cost or when it would start.
We will report the repair plans when they are published.
Have your say