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Chester Visit

I'm planning a visit tomorrow and I would be grateful for any tips on where to go what to do........my camera will be near at hand and I plan is to stay for about 3 hours.

I'll be arriving by train and will have to depend on buses or taxis. 

Ta in anticipation. xx

Posts

  • Hello DK - I think the best thing to do is to walk round the City Walls, probably best to begin at the Eastgate, in the centre of the city close to the Grosvenor Hotel.  You can get up on to the Walls level via some steps there.  The Victorian clock on the Eastgate is one of  the best-known features of the city itself. 

    With the hotel behind you, if you walk to the right (clockwise) along the city wall  you'll go down towards the eastern side of the city and will see the remains of the Roman Amphitheatre on one side and and the hippocaust on the other, where the Newgate goes over the road.  If you were to walk to the left you'd pass the cathedral.  There's a new-ish belltower there.  If you were to walk down Eastgate Street with the clock behind you, you'd reach The Cross, with Bridge Street on the left, going downhill a bit to the river. Watergate Street's straight ahead, and it goes down to the Roodee & underneath the Watergate itself.  You can access/leave the Walls at a number of points, so a total circular tour isn't absolutely necessary!

    Either way, it's a fair distance along the Walls from the Eastgate to the part where you can look down on the Roodee Racecourse.  A bit of the wall's missing between that point and Handbridge,  but if you go further  (anticlockwise from the racecourse & past the County Court building on your left) you'll end up alongside and above the River Dee.  There's an old bridge which crosses the river and upstream there's a weir which might make a good photo.

    In any case, I guess the best-known feature of Chester is probably what are called The Rows - shops at the upper level and covered footway over those at street level.  You probably know already that the city's Roman name was Deva, but The Rows date - I think - from the Middle Ages.  Near the Newgate and just beyond the amphitheatre there's a Visitor Centre, so that might be a good place to go and pick up a guide book.  It's probably less than 100 yards from the Newgate, and you can see the building from there - it looks as though it was once a school or something.

    Hope you have a good time - Ma.

  • Hi, Ma

    Many thanks for that useful information, just what I was looking for....I'll print it off and take it with me. I think there may be some tired legs tomorrow night.

    Hope you're keeping well. 

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