The Beaney is a slightly absurd Victorian institution — half mock-Tudor confection, half serious museum — that sits in the middle of the High Street offering free entry to everything. Inside is a permanent collection of Anglo-Saxon and medieval finds from the area, a small but good gallery of nineteenth-century English painting, and assorted curiosities (taxidermy, a stuffed Egyptian crocodile, the city's collection of historic embroidery).
The building was founded in 1899 by Dr James George Beaney, a Canterbury-born surgeon who emigrated to Australia and left the city the money in his will. The temporary exhibitions are worth checking — the curators have a taste for the genuinely interesting. The cafe is good for a rest, and the public library upstairs is still working.