London SE1 > News & Features > October 2000

Chaucer 600

Geoffrey Chaucer travelled abroad on numerous occasions becoming familiar with Genoa and Florence as well as parts of France. But his most famous journey was from Borough High Street to Canterbury.

The trip which gave him the material for the Canterbury Tales began in April 1388 at the Tabard Inn. The stable yard is now called Talbot Yard and is occupied by Copyprints. Upstairs in the same building is the Confraternity of Saint James which promotes the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. This is appropriate for medieval pilgrims making for Spain would have had to go take the road to Canterbury. Southwark Cathedral is the venue for the annual costumed Chaucer Commemoration on Easter Monday and it will be the focus for Chaucer Day on Thursday 26 October marking the 600th anniversary of Chaucer's death in 1400. Chaucer's pilgrimage had been to the shrine of St Thomas of Canterbury who was murdered in his own cathedral. Days before that terrible martyrdom which shocked Europe the Archbishop visited Southwark Cathedral, then called Southwark Priory and was received by the canons. This month Southwark's Priory turned Cathedral will host the day's events.

At lunchtime Chaucer's latest biographer Richard West and novelist Garry O'Connor will be speaking on Chaucer ? Reality and Fiction at 1.10pm. Admission is free and this will be the launch event of the Southwark Literature Festival.

In the evening, in conjunction with Southwark Festival, there will be a rare performance of George Dyson's The Canterbury Pilgrims conducted by Martin Neary with Gillian Keith (soprano), Robert Tear (tenor), Stephen Roberts (baritone), the choir of St John's Smith Square Orchestra and the English Festival Orchestra. Dyson's Cantata will be preceded by his overture At the Tabard Inn.

Chaucer was a friend of Poet Laureate John Gower who lived at Southwark Priory and is buried in the present cathedral building. He is depicted on his tomb with his head resting on his books which inspired both Chaucer and later Shakespeare.

Today's Poet Laureate, the biographer of Southwark resident John Keats, is Andrew Motion who will be giving the Southwark Literature Lecture at St George's Borough High Street at lunchtime on Friday 3 November. Appropriately it is being sponsored by Copyprints, the current occupant of the Tabard Inn site.

On Wednesday 25 October (the eve of the anniversary) the Scarlet Theatre Company will perform two of Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in the John Harvard Library. The Pardoner's Tale and The Wife of Bath's Tale will be presented to a promenade audience at 12.10pm, 1.10pm and 2.10pm. Admission is by ticket available in advance from the Library. Meanwhile the Isleworth Actors' Company will bring the Tales to Borough Market at lunchtimes from Wednesday to Saturday in the anniversary week.