Trifter

Perhaps because I was born and raised there, to me Chester is simply an amazing place – as this first picture shows.  It is taken from The Rows in Upper Bridge Street.  This system was created in the middle ages and is almost unique in Europe (there is another, lesser example in Germany).  The system of rows is where the shops are literally tiered.  You have a shop on ground level and then immediately above it there is a walkway (called, The Rows!).  Set in from this is another set of shops, often different from the shop below it!  This no doubt enhanced the retail experience of medieval shoppers and it is the same today.  This particular part of The Rows is where numerous generations of young people have met in the early evening before they embark on their carousing through the city!

Chester is tucked away about twenty miles under Liverpool on the map of England and it is true that it is often overshadowed by its larger, more famous neighbor.  It is difficult to compete with The Beatles, after all.  However, Chester has charms that are all its own and I would like to invite you to a short tour of the city.  I will start in what I, as a Cestrian (yes, that’s what you call someone from Chester!) see as the very center of the city – and that is the place that we call The Cross.  This is where the original Roman Principia stood – the central offices of the occupation force which founded the city over two thousand years ago.  Every day the Town Crier comes to The Cross and regales people with news both local and international.  As a nod to the times the Crier often plugs local businesses too – which is probably what he would have done centuries ago as one of the sole sources of news for the people!

A view of Upper Bridge Street – much of which was rebuilt in the middle of the eighteenth century.  The town elders, in a prescient moment, decided to rebuild in the style of the previous houses, which were built in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.  Many people are taken in and think that the houses date from that era and although some do, this ‘mock’ Tudor veneer is less than two hundred years old in many places. It does, however, give Chester its architectural identity which most people, when asked, would describe as typical of the place.  The row above the Rohan shop at the right hand side of the picture is where the first picture of this article was taken.

Towards the bottom of Upper Bridge Street there stands the oldest surviving part of the system of rows.  This dates back from the thirteenth century – a time when Chester would have been a significantly unhealthier place to live, with delights such as Bubonic Plague being prevalent.  Built to last, even such ancient delights are prone to current economics – as can be seen by the empty shop front and the ‘To Let’ sign.

A five minute walk down Lower Bridge Street brings us to one of the oldest Public Houses in Chester.  This is the infamous Bear and Billet Inn where innumerous young Cestrians have misspent their youth (this writer included!).   This was built in 1664 – another time when pestilence was just about to be launched upon the unsuspecting port (as it was then).  Notice how small the entrance is.  This reflects the size of the people at the time – people were considered pretty tall if they grew to more than five foot eight inches!

Just past The Bear and Billet is the oldest bridge in the city – in fact it was the only one until just before Victoria came to the throne.  It was built in the fourteenth century and was itself a replacement for a wooden bridge that was made in the tenth.  As a testament to the engineering prowess of the day the bridge is still used for cars to cross – probably thousands per day.  It was used as a gateway to Wales, which in Old English meant ‘Land of foreigners’.  Not a very United Kingdom back in those days!

Just behind this view we have The Walls.  Chester was for hundred of years a vital strategic point, both for trade and for keeping the Welsh at bay!  The city was entirely walled in Roman times and these walls were repaired throughout the ages, the last restoration being in the eighteenth century.  At some points the walls tower over those on the ground, as can be seen here.  In more peaceful times, town houses were built which afford glorious views of the river throughout the year.

The River – the Dee – is a focal point of social life in Chester and is only ten minute’s walk from the City center.  Here you can rent out a row boat for a not so small hourly fee.  If you are feeling a little less energetic then you can spend some time on one of the several small cruise ships that take tourists for a jaunt up the river (past meadows which have been untouched since the middle ages).  Chester was the major port in the area until the late middle ages, when the river silted up.  The need for a port in the vicinity then gave rise to a much larger city – Liverpool!  It is probably this, at the time, tragedy for the merchants of Chester that ultimately allowed the city to retain so much of its architectural history.

The Romans left quite a few reminders of their four hundred or so years in Chester (or Deva as they knew it).  Just a five minute walk from the river there is the Roman garden which is a collection of remains from that period.  One of the more interesting is the hypocaust system that the Romans used as a form of central heating.  These pillars would be underneath the ground floor of the villa and wood and charcoal would be burned there to heat up the house!  How civilized!  It took until the second part of the twentieth century for the majority of the population of Chester to catch up with the idea of central heating!

The Romans knew how to enjoy themselves and they left behind one of the few amphitheatres in the United Kingdom.  It isn’t quite The Coliseum of Rome but people are nevertheless very proud of this two thousand year old remnant of past colonialism.  Unfortunately only half of the amphitheatre has ever been excavated because – you guessed it – the houses standing on the uncovered half are considered too historically valuable and so cannot be knocked down for the sake of the archaeologists.  Perhaps one day technology will allow us to discover what lies beneath without destroying what stands atop!

Just a short walk from the amphitheatre the Eastgate Clock, erected on the city walls to commemorate the diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria is one of the best known landmarks in Chester.  It was for over a hundred years completely mechanical.  Several years ago the old parts were removed and now the four faces of the clock are operated completely by computer. 

A stone’s throw away from the clock is the city Cathedral – small by the standards of the day but still one of the more magnificent landmarks of the city.  The cathedral was founded as a church in the tenth century and dedicated to Saint Werburgh who was a Mercian princess several hundred years earlier.  It was a monastery until Henry VIII dissolved them in 1540 and it has been a cathedral since then.  The interior is like a time capsule of different times in the city’s history and is one of the primary tourist destinations of Chester.

Tucked away behind the cathedral are sets of seventeenth century town houses which many people overlook.  The streets retain their original cobbles and many of the houses still bear the original insurance stamps that the owners and occupiers paid heavily for, to unsure that if there was a fire that it would be put out.  If a house did not have the insurance stamp on the outside, the fire would be left to burn!

From the town houses, a hundred meters further up the city walls is one of the many towers that dot it.  This is King Charles’ Tower.  When the country was embroiled in civil war, Charles stood on the tower and watched his army defeated at the battle of Rowton Moore.  Chester was staunchly pro-monarch and much of the city was leveled during the civil war.  The tower was not, as many believe, built for Charles’ viewing pleasure (or not!).  It was in fact the meeting place of the Guild of painters, glaziers, stationers and embroiders.

This article is the tip of the historic iceberg that is the city of Chester!  I have omitted many places which are well worth a look, as this is simply a snap shot of the city and I have included what are my own favorites.  Left out here are, among others, the Town Hall (the outside of which is currently enveloped in scaffolding) and the Town Hall Square, the Castle, the Race Course and the spooky ruins of Saint John’s church.  This article would go on for many more pages to do the city true justice.  However, I hope you have enjoyed this snap shot of a city which memorably mixes the modern and the contemporary and is well worth a visit!

All pictures taken by the author – Boxing Day 2008