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.
