Biggin Street c.1900.
Biggin Street takes its name from the Biggin
Gate in the old town wall. The street runs from the site of this
gate (at the north-west corner of St Mary’s
Churchyard) to the Maison Dieu. The Biggin
Gate was demolished in 1762. Two of the town’s historic buildings, the
Maison Dieu and Maison Dieu House,
are on Biggin Street, together with the town’s War
Memorial.
For centuries Biggin Street was the main road out of
the town to Canterbury and London, although in places it was very narrow.
In the last week of May 1893 a traffic census was taken in the street
during which time 9,440 ordinary light and heavy vehicles, 908 cycles
and bath chairs and 446 horses, passed along the street. Of this 10,794,
all passed through the narrowest part of the street, 6,749 continued
up past the Maison Dieu, with the remaining 4,045 turning up Folkestone
Road. This number would not have been so bad if it was spread evenly
over the day but most of the traffic was crowded into two hours every
day.
The street was so narrow in places that a hand cart
parked in the road or a goods vehicle delivering to a shop could cause
a line of traffic to build up the length of the street. The decision
was made by the Corporation to widen the road by demolishing the buildings
on the western side of the street and rebuilding further back allowing
a more convenient width of road. Many of these late Victorian buildings
survive, and Biggin Street now forms the main shopping street of the
town.
