Watergate Street



Seacome, Batenham and Hemingway unashamedly copy each other in their descriptions of Watergate Street, so we leave it to Hughes to open this description:


 * "Westward Ho! a few steps and we find ourselves moving along Watergate Street: once, and when Chester was a thriving port, the chief street of the city As with men so "There is a tide in the affairs of streets, Which taken at the flood leads on to fortune" but the tide for Watergate Street has ebbed away and now flows in other and more favoured channels. Still, as we shall presently see this Street is not behind any of its neighbours in absorbing interest. You will perceive that like Eastgate Street it has the Cestrian characteristic on either side its high level Row. The one upon the right hand adjoining St Peter's Church is perhaps as good a specimen as we have now left to us of the Rows of the last century. Had we the time to spare a ramble along this Row and a hole and corner visit to the numerous alleys that intersect it would convince the most sceptical that there is more in Chester than meets the eye. But we must away for see here is an odd looking tenement on the other side the street inviting our attention..."

Booth Mansion north of Watergate Street also accommodated assembly rooms, which as 'Mr. Eaton's Great Room' gave space in the 1750s for such diversions as "rope dancing, fire eating, and a learned dog". It closed in 1758.

=Buildings (listed or otherwise)=