1573 and 40TH

The number 1573 on the front of Café Nero is not price of a latte and blueberry muffin although close! 

The date of 1573 refers to the time Queen Elizabeth supposedly stayed here.

Nero’s High Street buildings and the yard accessed between them go back to at least 1200 and contain probably one of the most flamboyant building facades in Canterbury. This remarkable building, with its the exterior covered in a painted plasterwork c1690s houses a restaurant known as Queen Elizabeth's Guest Chamber. In truth it was only in 1899 that the first floor was separated from the ground floor shops creating a single large room, known since 1904 as said “Queen Elizabeth’s Chamber”

The site of the present building was the Crown Inn from the 15th to 18th centuries, since when it has accommodated a series of retail businesses such as a Boot & Shoe Warehouse, International Tea Company and fruiteries

But back to Elizabeth I

Elizabeth came to Canterbury to celebrate her 40th birthday in 1573. Every summer, Queen Elizabeth I would leave her great palaces around London, and embark on a tour of her country. These tours were called 'progresses' and the Queen enjoyed them very much. They were a kind of holiday for her, a refreshing change from all the tensions of court life. When they were told of an impending visit, the residents of cities, towns and villages, would clean up their streets, mend roads, fix bridges, and decorate their houses. They wanted to impress! [bit like sprucing up after winning an Olympics bid]. Admittedly her arrival was delayed because of smallpox in city.

Queen Elizabeth far more likely stayed at the Royal palace on site of the quite recently dissolved St Augustine’s Abbey. The High Street location was probably more for the Queen's ministers, courtiers, and servants. The story that Elizabeth also had an assignation with the French suitor Duc d’Alencon here is almost certainly untrue.

During her stay Elizabeth was entertained at a lavish dinner at the Great Hall of the  Archbishops Palace. The Great Hall was the second largest England after Westminster Hall. Archbishop Matthew Parker spent £2000 give Elizabeth her birthday bash, a banquet of over 150 different dishes!

So maybe Elizabeth stayed here, maybe she engaged in some French kissing or maybe she just felt like a Nero!