Between the pubs: Chester

By Kate Simon

Hands up, I have a vested interest in Chester – it’s part of my day job to promote this city. Nice work for sure; if ever I were to return to the North to live, this is where I would move to. Set on the border of England and Wales, Chester is a beauty, layered with history from Roman times yet kept young and relevant by its university and a lively cultural scene. So, if you’re tempted to visit the upcoming Chester Craft Beer Festival on 20 May, stay a while. Here’s what to see and do when you’re not sampling the local brews.

Walk the Walls...

Orientate yourself with a walk along the walls, a 2-mile circuit from which you can spy most of the major sights. Join the walls at Eastgate – hard to miss for its ornate Victorian clock, an unofficial symbol of the city that is said to be beaten for selfies only by Big Ben. Head south and check off the Roman Amphitheatre, Roman Gardens, River Dee, Castle, Racecourse, Canal, Cathedral and more.

The walls themselves have stories to tell, not least the discernible breach in the wall in the Roman Gardens created by cannon fire by the Parliamentarian forces in the English Civil War. But my favourite tale is how the Victorians discovered Roman tombstones shoring up parts of the walls. They dug them out and put them on display in the Grosvenor Museum. It’s an astonishing and intriguing collection.

These ancient walls are surprisingly accessible to people with disabilities and one of the reasons why Chester is a past winner of the European Union’s Access City Award. Don’t take it from me, the journalist and wheelchair user Frances Ryan put the place to a thorough test for an article in The Guardian.

...and The Rows

Most cities would be thrilled to have walkable walls to offer visitors, yet Chester also has the Rows to wander. These 700-year-old structures line the four main shopping streets that form a staggered cross in the heart of the old town and are defined by their unusual balcony-style walkways at first-floor level. A visual guide to the city’s architectural history, the Rows include medieval, Tudor, Georgian, Tudor Revival, and Brutalist styles, and deep in their bowels are the pillars of the Roman fort, Deva Victrix.

Even the most reluctant shopper will find the boutiques in the Rows hard not to browse, especially gems such as the small museum in Lowe & Sons on Bridge Street Row. It recounts the 250-year history of this jewellers and the city’s silversmithing heritage (Chester had an assay office until 1962). If you want to find out more, listen to the free, self-guided audio tour, Discover The Rows, written and voiced by yours truly.

Travel through time...

Another way to explore the Rows is to join the The Rows Revealed tour run by the knowledgeable Guild of Chester Tour Guides. It’s one of a variety of trails plotted by the Guild, which also hosts a general walking tour of the city every day of the year, including Christmas Day. Another to try is the recently launched Women of Chester tour, which makes the connection between the city and high-profile women from Aethelflead, warrior queen of the Mercians, to the fashion designer Coco Chanel.

...and on your stomach

Tours of this city are not all about history, though. Tours Around Chester leads tasty trawls of local food producers and providers, including one designed for families, which also call by the expanding variety of street-food sellers now congregated in the newly opened multimillion-pound Chester Market.

Capture castles...

Who wouldn’t build a castle on the border of the Celtic badlands? The Anglo-Saxons marked the spot, but the visible remnants are of William the Conqueror’s mighty fort and a later Georgian reinterpretation. Much of it is occupied by the Crown Court and university and the vast parade ground is a car park. But this year English Heritage is opening the 12th Century Agricola Tower more frequently than usual, every weekend until the end of October. The castle’s first stone gateway also contains a chapel with wall paintings dating from 1240.

...and cathedrals

Another ancient wall painting can be seen at St John the Baptist, the former cathedral, next to the Roman Amphitheatre. This one, a depiction of St John holding a book, dates from the 14th Century. Today’s Cathedral is the sandstone hulk built on the foundations of a Benedictine monastery on St Werburgh’s Street. (Don’t miss the freestanding bell tower, the Addleshaw Tower, aka the Chester Rocket, a fine example of 1970s’ ecclesiastical architecture.) This summer the cathedral nave will be the performance space for the Chester Mystery Plays, a big community event led by professionals that takes place every five years.

Get the picture...

Chester is missing a major art gallery but that hasn’t thwarted the ambition to put on some interesting shows over the years around the city. Chester Visual Arts leads the way in this quest and its latest exhibition, in the former H&M store, is a challenging showcase of work by the acclaimed photographer Simon Roberts titled How did we get here? Where do we go now?. Fortunately, it opens on the day of the beer festival.

...and the performance

What Chester does have is a theatre of national repute, with that rare thing, its own repertory company. The theatre and its troupe are based in Storyhouse, a reimagined art deco cinema that still features screenings as well as arts festivals, alongside housing the public library and a good café serving East Mediterranean food. Storyhouse is behind the annual summer Grosvenor Park Open-Air Theatre (A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Great Gatsby are this year’s productions) and the outdoor cinema Moonlight Flicks.

For more ideas about what to do in Chester, go to www.visitcheshire.com/chester and https://experiencechester.co.uk.

Phil’s Beer Notes

It’s the people at Beer Heroes tap room and beer shop who are behind the festival, and the venue itself is a celebration of local beer craft with a dozen taps plus 100s of bottles and cans. Beyond the festival, it also hosts regular tastings and food-pairing sessions.

The Brewery Tap, housed in a 17th Century hall, is the spectacular flagship pub of nearby Spitting Feathers Brewery, and the best place to sample its range of beers, on cask and keg. Nice ceiling, too.

Hidden away in the Rows, above a wine bar, you’ll find the Cavern of the Curious Gnome, where you can drink from an exceptional tap list that includes Belgians, modern pales and cask ales, in atmospheric surroundings.

The pub with arguably the best reputation for cask beer in the city is The Cellar. As well as having half a dozen ales on the pumps, you’ll find some interesting options on keg, and the pub can help you choose what you’ll like, too, at its monthly ‘Beer Without Fear’ tutored tastings.

Now settled into its new home on Foregate Street, That Beer Place has 11 taps pouring a well-curated, changing range of craft beers from home and abroad plus some well-stocked fridges for browsing. There’s a busy programme of events, too, including tap takeovers and beer and food pairing.

Photo © Visit Cheshire