Canterbury Tales Visitor Attraction, Canterbury, Kent

...His best known work, "The Canterbury Tales" was published in 1476 (probably the first book ever to be printed in England) making it a best seller for over 600 years. Chaucer wove his tales around the central premise that each was told by a pilgrim travelling from the Tabard Inn in Southwark, London (where the story begins) to the shrine of Saint Thomas in Canterbury Cathedral, one of the most popular sites of pilgrimage in Medieval Europe. ...
.../> This famous association between Canterbury and Chaucer's great work is rather shamelessly promoted in the city, even to the extent of providing an "experience" for visitors to learn about the Tales. This is how The Canterbury Tales Visitor Attraction is described:
"A visit to The Canterbury Tales, one of Kent's most popular attractions, with its stunning reconstruction of 14th century England, is just like stepping into ... more

The poet Geoffrey Chaucer is widely acknowledged as one of the foremost figures in English literature. His best known work, "The Canterbury Tales" was published in 1476 (probably the first book ever to be printed in England) making it a best seller for over 600 years. Chaucer wove his tales around the central premise that each was told by a pilgrim travelling from the Tabard Inn in Southwark, London (where the story begins) to the shrine of Saint Thomas in Canterbury Cathedral, one of the most popular sites of pilgrimage in Medieval Europe. Pilgrims did actually gather at this inn to make the perilous journey in groups, before proceeding at a leisurely pace along what is today roughly the route of the A2 (incidentally, this became known as the "Canterbury Pace", which moved in modern English as the word "canter").

This famous association between Canterbury and Chaucer's great work is rather shamelessly promoted in the city, even to the extent of providing an "experience" for visitors to learn about the Tales. This is how The Canterbury Tales Visitor Attraction is described:
"A visit to The Canterbury Tales, one of Kent's most popular attractions, with its stunning reconstruction of 14th century England, is just like stepping into the Middle Ages. Inside the historic building of St. Margaret's Church you can step back over 500 years to join Geoffrey Chaucer (England's finest poet) and his colourful characters as they journey from London towards the shrine of St. Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral and enjoy their medieval adventure stories."

Not forgetting, of course, the opportunity to enjoy their Chaucer-themed shop and café afterwards.

I arrived at the Canterbury Tales Visitor Attraction on a Friday lunchtime in early May; it is located in a converted church in central Canterbury and was very easy to find (it is marked on all the tourist maps and is well signposted). I was drawn there partly from a desire to learn more about this important body of literature, and partly from the promise of a chance to "experience the sights, sounds and smells of a bygone era". I suppose I rather expected something like the famous Jorvik Viking Centre in York: careful, historical recreations using room sets and costumed figures, and well-researched information presented in an enjoyable and accessible way. I suppose I expected to go away having learnt something that would increase my appreciation for the city. Unfortunately, a lot of other people also seemed to be drawn there on the same day and I had to queue for around 25 minutes to actually get inside the building.

Once inside and parted from your money (£6.95 adults; £5.95 for the studious and pensioners, and £5.25 for under-15s) you are presented with your audio device and headphones. The Tales Attraction operates by fitting each visitor up with an electronic baton which picks up audio signals played at specific points around the building; the baton is set to your language (English, French, German, Dutch, Italian, Spanish or Japanese) and when it detects a signal in a room, it plays it to you through your headphones. This gives you a personal commentary that does not intrude on other visitors, regardless of different languages. The building is divided into a number of rooms - The Tabard Inn, making the pilgrimage, the Knight's Tale, the Miller's Tale, the Wife of Bath's Tale, the Nun's Priest's Tale, the Pardoner's Tale and the Shrine of Saint Thomas - each with a commentary that is supposedly based on the original wording by Chaucer (although in simple modern English so we can understand it better).

So, armed with my device and instructed in how to use it, I joined the next group and awaited the door to open to admit me to the Tabard Inn. As it is necessary to have the commentaries running on loops in each room, you are admitted in groups every four or five minutes, just before the first commentary in the Inn begins: the doors between rooms are controlled electronically, and time their opening and closing to coincide with the playing of the audio signals. Therefore, when the first door swung open, my group walked into the Tabard Inn just as the previous group were leaving it for the next room. The door closed behind us and the first commentary started up. Or rather, we all started waving our batons around like mad conductors trying to find the signal that would give us our commentary. It worked in the end, but I found that you had to stand with your arm outstretched and slightly raised to be able to pick up the commentary clearly, hardly the most comfortable position to be standing in. This first scene lasted around four minutes or so, then on cue to next door swung open and we marched through to the next set. At first I thought this was clever and well coordinated, but by the end I was feeling more like a herded sheep than anything else.

The room sets themselves were constructed well enough. They were populated with suitably dressed figures (although remarkably clean and well-fed for the 14th century…) and well-built backdrops, some with moving parts to help tell the Tales. In most rooms, subtle spotlighting was used to guide you to look at the places in the set that told the section of the story you were currently listening to (although in some places this was a bit too subtle, and as you moved around trying to find what you were supposed to be looking at, the audio signal crackled and faded). Smells were indeed added as promised, although I actually only noticed them in the first three rooms and I seriously doubt the accuracy of any of them. The sets were fun, but in no way the reliably reconstructions of the medieval world that we were led to believe we were getting. The commentary (when I got it, my arm did get rather tired towards the end and the signal did jump in places) was rather good and seemed to capture the original bawdy humour of Chaucer.

The tour itself lasted 40 minutes before coming to an abrupt end and sending us out (surprise, surprise) through the gift shop. I have to admit feeling a bit disappointed: my first thought was "is that it?". The leaflet I had picked up about the Tales Attraction had instructed to allow "at least an hour" for my visit, yet here I was in just two thirds of that time, at the end (I had spent nearly as much timing queuing to get in). For the price I paid, this was far too short a time in my opinion - for 40 minutes of entertainment, I think something around the £3 mark would have been a fairer price. I didn't hang around much to spend any more money in their shop, although I can comment that it was large (larger than some of the rooms I had been in on the tour), clean and well presented, and stuffed full of Chaucer mementoes (books, audio books, the Tales for children, etc), local produce (Rye pottery, local wines) and the Usual Suspects (pens, stationary, postcards, badges, etc).

Overall, what did I think? It was quite funny and entertaining, but not really what it presented itself to be - I learned precious little about the Tales (indeed, the BBC's recent adaptations left me with a greater appreciation for them) and it certainly did not have any historical accuracy or re-create the medieval world. The audio device, while a really good idea for making the Tales accessible to an international audience of visitors, didn't work properly. The headsets didn't fit well, the signal wavered a lot, my arm grew tired of holding the baton out and waving it around, and as a result I missed sections of commentary. I felt rushed around and a bit cheated. My overall opinion is that this was just a shameless way of fleecing tourists out of money, of cashing in on the Chaucer connection; I got a few laughs but learnt nothing and rather wished I hadn't bothered.

Not recommended.

To sum up, the Canterbury Tales Visitor Attraction was:
1. Well presented
2. Available in seven languages (plus a children's audio tour in English)
3. Centrally located and well signposted
4. Popular with other tourists

The Canterbury Tales Visitor Attraction was not:
1. An economical day out
2. For anyone who likes to move around at their own pace
3. For anyone hard of hearing or who does not like using headphones
4. For anyone unable to cope with ramps and stairs (no wheelchair access available)

The Details:
Location: St Margaret's Street, Canterbury (just off the High Street)
Entry: £6.95 adults / £5.95 students and pensioners / £5.25 children under 15
Opening Times: Daily (except Christmas Day), 10 am to 5pm
Phone: (01227) 479227
Web: www.canterburytales.org.uk / info@canterburytales.org.uk
 

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