Celebrating Canterbury’s New West End Quarter

On 29 February we celebrated the launch of Canterbury’s new West End Quarter at a special event hosted at Canterbury Umbrella Centre. Over 50 ‘West Enders’ gathered together to raise a glass to declare the quarter officially open! Finally Design Agency who created the branding for the quarter also donated £2,000 to the Umbrella Centre, as part of their support.  

Thank you to the Umbrella Centre for hosting us and, of course, thank you to all the West End businesses who rolled their sleeves up to help create this quarter. 

Canterbury’s West End quarter encompasses St Dunstan’s and St Peter’s Street, as well as The Marlowe Theatre, Westgate Hall and Curzon Westgate. It joins several ‘quarters’ in the city, alongside the Cathedral Quarter, Castle Quarter, and The King’s Mile. Just like the city’s other quarters, it does not replace any of the existing historic names associated with the area; it aims to promote the collective businesses to visitors and residents alike and to encourage visitors to stay and and spend locally.

Lisa Carlson, CEO of Canterbury BID explained: “As it is led by local businesses, it helps different organisations to further work together to promote their unique appeal. The branding and messaging behind the West End was led by Finally Agency, based in St Dunstan’s over several months, through workshops, presentations and feedback with the businesses in the area.

“We were very pleased that the process had almost universal praise from those involved, and everyone had the opportunity to feedback on the look and feel of the initiative. The West End will be led by the businesses and we can’t wait to see what sort of activities and events they plan.

Rob Dando, managing director of Finally Agency, said: “We were delighted to have been asked to create the branding for the West End quarter, and we are very pleased with the results and with the extremely positive feedback received from all the local businesses involved in the process from start to finish. As a business that has worked in St Dunstan’s for the past 22 years, we feel very excited by this process and are glad to be part of the West End along with so many businesses that want to celebrate our part of the city.”