The Jewish community in Canterbury initially centred on the area around Abode (formerly the County Hotel), bordered by Stour Street (known then as Hethenmanne Lane), where the synagogue was situated, and White Horse Lane, known then as Jewry Lane; this name now only applies to the section of road at the back of the hotel. This financial centre of the city was destroyed in the 13th Century by pogroms, and the expulsion of the Jews by Edward I in 1290.

Jews returned to Canterbury in Oliver Cromwell's time, and a Synagogue was built in St Dunstan's in 1762, roughly where the railway crossing is today. The cemetery is nearby, off Forty Acres Road.

To replace this synagogue when the railways demolished it, a site in King Street was found, and Sir Moses Montefiore laid down the building pictured in 1847. In the 1920s, declining numbers led to its sale, initially as St Alphege church hall, then to the King's School, who use it as a music room. In more recent years, the Jewish community has met at the University.

Records at Cathedral Archives

The Friend's Meeting house was built in Canterbury Lane in 1688, and altered in 1772. It was destroyed in the June 1942 Blitz. The current Meeting house is in the Friars, near the Marlowe Theatre.

Registers at the National Archives

The 'Strangers' were first allocated the use of St Alphege Church in 1575. Shortly afterwards, they transferred to the western crypt of the Cathedral. Today, the French Protestant chapel is still in a smaller area of the western crypt, in the Black Prince's Chantry.

Records at The National Archives, copies at the Centre for Kentish Studies, Maidstone