J962YH Canterbury, Kent, UK. Beaney House of Art and Knowledge - Royal Museum and Free Library at 18 High Street. The building takes its name from its benefa

PjrTravel/Alamy

Beaney House of Art & Knowledge

Canterbury

LoginSave

This mock-Tudor edifice is the grandest on the main shopping thoroughfare, if not the most authentic. Formerly called the Royal Museum & Art Gallery, it has housed Canterbury’s main library, a museum and an art gallery since 1899 – its current name is in honour of the 19th-century benefactor who funded the original building. In addition to the city’s main library and the tourist office, the mixed bag of museum exhibits is worth half an hour between the main sights.

There’s also a good cafe and very well-curated temporary exhibitions (admission sometimes charged).

Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

  • Canterbury Cathedral, Kent, England

    Canterbury Cathedral

    0.17 MILES

    A rich repository of more than 1400 years of Christian history, Canterbury Cathedral is the Church of England’s mother ship, and a truly extraordinary…

  • Leeds castle taken Just before the Sun appeared over the hill

    Leeds Castle

    19.59 MILES

    Leeds Castle, an immense moated pile just east of Maidstone,  is often considered the world’s most romantic castle. It's certainly one of the most visited…

  • MARGATE, ENGLAND - DEC 10, 2014 Turner Contemporary gallery, exhibition space, designed by David Chipperfield.

    Turner Contemporary

    15.22 MILES

    Turner Contemporary is a blockbuster art gallery, bolted together on the site of the seafront guesthouse where master painter JMW Turner used to stay…

  • Dover Castle with tourists entering.

    Dover Castle

    14.77 MILES

    Occupying top spot, literally and figuratively, in Dover’s townscape, this most impressive of castles was built to bolster the country’s weakest point at…

  • Banksy Brexit Mural - removed

    Banksy Brexit Mural - removed

    14.84 MILES

    Despite voting leave, the poor port town of Dover is possibly the Southeast community set to suffer most post-Brexit. It was perhaps for that reason that…

  • Secret Wartime Tunnels

    Secret Wartime Tunnels

    14.95 MILES

    The biggest draw at Dover Castle is the secret wartime tunnels. The claustrophobic chalk-hewn passageways were excavated during the Napoleonic Wars and…

  • Richborough Roman Fort

    Richborough Roman Fort

    11.01 MILES

    Roman Britain began here amid the windswept ruins of Richborough’s Roman Fort, just 2 miles north of Sandwich. This is where the successful AD 43 invasion…

  • Spitfire Memorial Museum

    Spitfire Memorial Museum

    12.67 MILES

    Around 4 miles northwest of Ramsgate’s town centre at Manston Airport, this purpose-built museum stores two WWII planes: one a Spitfire, the other a…

View more attractions

Nearby Canterbury attractions

1. Eastbridge Hospital

0.04 MILES

A ‘place of hospitality’ for pilgrims, soldiers and the elderly since 1180, Eastbridge Hospital of St Thomas the Martyr is the last of many such buildings…

2. Canterbury Tales

0.1 MILES

This ambitious, overpriced three-dimensional interpretation of Chaucer’s classic tales using jerky animatronics and audioguides is certainly entertaining,…

3. Greyfriars Chapel

0.11 MILES

You’ll find Greyfriars Chapel in serene riverside gardens behind Eastbridge Hospital. The first monastery built in England by Franciscan monks in 1267,…

4. Roman Museum

0.12 MILES

This fascinating subterranean archaeological site gives an insight into Canterbury’s everyday life almost two millennia ago. Visitors can stroll a…

5. Canterbury Cathedral

0.17 MILES

A rich repository of more than 1400 years of Christian history, Canterbury Cathedral is the Church of England’s mother ship, and a truly extraordinary…

6. West Gate Towers

0.2 MILES

The city’s only remaining medieval gateway (1380) houses a museum that focuses on the building’s use as a prison. The views from the top are pretty good,…

7. St Augustine’s Abbey

0.41 MILES

An integral but often overlooked part of the Canterbury World Heritage Site, St Augustine’s Abbey was founded in AD 597, marking the rebirth of…

8. St Martin’s Church

0.62 MILES

This stumpy little building just off the road from Canterbury to Sandwich is thought to be England’s oldest parish church in continuous use. It’s also…

  • placement: superzone
  • path: Destinations/POIs/superzone
  • possible size: [970, 250], [970, 90], [728, 90], [1, 1],
  • targeting: 
    {
  "url": "england/canterbury/attractions/beaney-house-of-art-knowledge/a/poi-sig/1212884/1316522",
  "destination": "Canterbury",
  "continent": "Europe",
  "country": "England",
  "city": "Canterbury",
  "position": "superzone"
}