Eastgate Street



Eastgate Street, along with Northgate Street, Bridge Street and Watergate Street, is one of the four original streets built inside Roman Chester. All four streets meet at the High Cross, and each contains part of The Rows. Hemingway writes of it that it:


 * "..is tolerably wide and forms a direct line from the Cross to the Eastgate being somewhat more than 200 yards in length. Some good buildings have lately been erected here but still it may be said that the venerable appearance of many others present to the eye as it were a model of every thing antique in the universe where in some places new built houses arc intermixed with the old ones the appearance is motley and grotesque. To see a modern mansion just finished standing between two gothic structures the youngest probably not less than two hundred years old, gives the beholder an idea if the allusion may be allowed of the picture of an exquisite of the present day placed between the portraitures of a brace of beaux of the last century or if the hyperbole be too strong of a splendid family mansion flanked by a couple of mud-wall cowhouses."

Buildings (Listed or Otherwise)
Eastgate Street has changed a lot since Hemingway was writing, as quoted above. The early image by Francis Frith, as reproduced below, shows a street that some might not recognise immediately.

North Side (High Cross to St Werburghs Street)
A gallery of buildings along this section of Eastgate street shows the changes over the years. Some of these images are further discussed on the page "Art of Louise Rayner".

These images show no evidence of a Row between the High Cross and "The Boot" on the north side of Eastgate street. However, the row was still there, but had become the "Dark Row" due to building on the stall-board.

Number 1
This is a largely 20thC building with some small amount of 18thC brickwork at the Row and Row+1 level. The Row walkway is on solid ground and is not over-sailed. This is a medieval arrangement described as early as 1270, when this was already the site of the "buttershops". The cellar is rock-cut and appears to date from the 18thC. In the early 1990s the Dark Row on the corner of Eastgate Street and Northgate Street was reconstructed by the Biggins Sargent Partnership, a development notable for its expansion of the Rows system.

Number 3
Excepting some early 19thC brickwork at the rear, this rendered brick building is entirely of the 1860's or later. The cellar is rock-cut and does not extend under the row walkway. As can be seen from the prints on this page, the building was preceded by a a rather tottering, jettied, half-timbered medieval building

Number 5-7
A Vernacular Revival building of 1874 by T.M. Lockwood for Mr Specer as a shop and tailors premises. It has a timber framed facade with herringbone brickwork, pargeting and an oriel window. Ther is no earlier fabric visible although the Medieval "Dark Row" arrangement was preserved. Two undercrofts which were originally separate have been combined to form a single modern shop. These are the most westerly undercrofts on Eastgate Street. This and the adjoining section of the street are described by Hughes (1856) as follows:


 * "You will perceive that there is a covered Row also on the other side of this street similar in character though not in adornment to the one we have just been noticing This is popularly known as the Pepper Alley Row, a quaint but gloomy looking region rendered still more so by the projecting block of buildings displayed in our engraving. Here are the well known drapery establishments of Messrs Oakes and Ambrose Williams, and that curious old zigzag erection occupied by Mr Hill, Chester's enterprising boot-maker : behind which premises Pepper Alley Bow "worms its darksome way" into Northgate Street. In this Row are the rooms of the Church of England Educational Institute and the Excise Office."

Number 9-15
A Vernacular Revival iron-framed building of 1900 designed by T. M. Lockwood as a department store for Richard Jones, and extended to each side by Lockwood's sons in 1915 (to the left) and c.1930 (to the right). This contains the "Dark Row" to the rear which is over-sailed by a 19thC structure. Evidence suggests that the Row was over-sailed from the late medieval period. The changes made as part of the "Dark Row" project are evident by comparing the photographs from the 1960's with more modern ones.

The Boot Inn




The Boot is, at and above Row level, a more or less intact timber-framed building dated 1623, with a rebuilt facade from the 19thC. The over-row parlour (which provides a seating area) is clad almost completely in 17thC wainscot. The pub has occupied the building since at least 1750, although the Row level "shop" has also been a barbers so that the pub was accessed by walking down a corridor.

One curio behind the bar is a stone shot which was found in one of the oak beams during a 1986 restoration. This could be from the Civil War, or it may be a home-made poachers bullet. Purported to have been Chester's most notorious brothel, during the 1700’s to the early 1900’s, and a gentleman’s gaming club from the early 1920’s, it is supposedly haunted with occasional unexplained female moans and laughter, supposedly being of supernatural origin.


 * The Boot on Wikipedia;

Number 17a
Number 17a was the site of a Medieval building but this has been largely replaced with a late 18thC or early 19thC brick building, which is itself hidden behind a mid 20th Century Neo-Georgian facade. At the rear is a completely separate early 19thC. building connected to the front at Row level only. The party wall between the rear yard of this item and the yard of the Boot Inn is partly of medieval sandstone masonry, marking the boundary of the burgage plot.

Number 19-21
Numbers 19-21 were formerly two separate properties, and were rebuilt as a single broad-fronted brick town house in the early 19thC. No earlier structure is visbile although the the third and fourth storeys are a relatively unaltered late Georgian interior.

Number 25
Number 25 is an early Vernacular revival building from 1861 by TA Richardson. For Dutton and Miller, grocers. Twelve stone steps lead from Street to Row level giving access to Godstall Lane.

Godstall Lane


Godstall Lane derives its origins from the layout of Roman Chester where it formed the eastern boundary of the legionary commanders residence - the praetorium. The term Praetorian derived from the tent of the commanding general or "Praetor" of a Roman army in the field — the praetorium. These were an elite recruitment of Roman citizens and Latins - a private force of soldiers to act as guards of the tent or the person. They consisted of both infantry and cavalry. In time, this cohort came to be known as the "cohors praetoria". In Roman Chester, which generally followed the layout of a Roman camp, the "cohors praetoria" are located next to the praetorium.

According to its Blue Plaque Godstall Lane is one of only four medieval lanes to survive within the city walls (the others being Leen Lane, Feathers Lane and ???? ). The name meaning "God's Place" is reputed to be from a tradition that a hermit lived thereabouts in the 12th Century. The hermit (see Hermitage) was identified by Gerald of Wales (Chapter XI), writing about 1200, as the Holy Roman Emperor Henry V, although it is extremely unlikely that this was in fact the case as Henry's death in Utrecht is well documented. Gerald (who often records "dubious local tales") writes as follows:


 * "Chester boasts of being the burial-place of Henry, a Roman Emperor, who after having imprisioned his carnal and spiritual father, pope Paschal, gave himself up to penitence; and, becoming a voluntary exile in this country, ended his days in solitary retirement.. .. the truth of circumstances was declared (and not known before) by dying confession."

Pope Paschal II was consecrated pope in succession to Pope Urban II (1088–99) on 19 August 1099. His reign of almost twenty years was exceptionally long for a Pope of the Middle Ages. In the long struggle with the Holy Roman Emperors over investiture, he zealously carried on the policy in favor of papal privilege, but with only partial success: Emperor Henry V marched on Rome with an army and imprisoned this pope in order to get himself crowned in St. Peter's on 13 April 1111 (Henry was excommunicated as soon as he had left Rome).

There is another connection between Chester and Paschal II: during the Investiture Crisis, Bishop Robert de Limesey (who translated his see from Chester to Coventry in 1102) was one of the bishops, along with Gerard, Archbishop of York and Herbert de Losinga bishop of Norwich, who returned from Rome (in 1102) and informed Henry I that Paschal II had confirmed Henry could personally invest bishops, provided they were good men. The pope later denied what had been said and excommunicated all three bishops.



The "Holy Roman Emperor" story, as given in "The County Palatine Of Chester" (T. Cadell And W. Davies, 1810, page 538) is:


 * Camden in noticing this tradition speaks of Henry IV as the emperor of whom it was told but all the circumstances mentioned by Giraldus who only calls him Imperatorem Romanum Henricum apply to Henry V. There has been a tradition of very old standing that this emperor led a retired life under the borrowed name of Godescallus or Godstallus and a lane near the cathedral called Godstall lane is said to have obtained that appellation from him. In an ancient Chronicle called the Red Book of the abbey of Chester was the following passage which seems to give some countenance to these traditions: "Anno 1110: Rex Henricus dedit filiam suam Godescallo imperatori Alemannþa qui nunc Cestriaz jacet". Notwithstanding the authority of this passage and that the time when Giraldus Cambrensis found the tradition current at Chester was but about sixty years after the death of Henry V Emperor of Germany yet it seems evident from the authority of the best historians that it was wholly void of foundation since we are told that the Emperor Henry V died at Utrecht.

Hanshall informs us:


 * Voltaire says that in the letter which Henry IV sent to his son he entreats him to allow the Bishop of Leige to grant him an asylum. Allow me says Henry to continue at Liege if not an Emperor at least a refugee. Let it not be said to my shame or rather to yours that I am forced to beg lodgings in Easter time. If you grant me what I ask I shall be greatly obliged to you if you refuse me I will go and rather live as a poor Cottager in a foreign land than wander thus from one disgrace to another in an empire which was once my own if This may be considered by some as an allusion to his voluntary exile the circumstance also of a lane called Godstall lane.

A footnote in Hanshall reads:


 * This lane is described in a survey of the streets from "the dais of King Henrie the third" in these terms: On the south side of the said streete is a lane that goeth out of the said streete by the house side of William Tanner and so into the Church yarde of St Oswalde's called Lean Lane and beneath it upon the same side nearer the Eastgate is a called St Goddellstall and so gocth out of the said streete ioto the said Cburch yard: this Goddellstall lieth within the Abbey Church in Chester and he was an Bmperour and a virtuouse disposed man in bis liveing and lane lietli betweeno the house sometime of Robert Cbamberlaine and the bouse late in tho holding of William Humphrey. And upon tbe same side nearer the Eastgate there a lane called St Warburge's lane and goeth into the aforesaid Church yard &c It is probable therefore that God slal lane was upon the site of the passage leading from East gate street to tbe Cathedral now called the London entry.

A possible reason for this story to be made up lies with Henry V's wife, none other than the Empress Matilda, daughter of Henry I on England and one of the protagonists in the Civil War during the time of Earl of Chester Ranulph De Gernon. After the death of Holy Roman Emperor Henry V (in 1125), Matilda married Geoffrey of Anjou and, on the 5th March 1133, gave birth to the future Henry II of England. Obviously, if Emperor Henry was still alive and a hermit in Chester when Henry II was born, then Henry II was illegitimate and some doubt would be cast on the rightfulness of the Angevin succession. In fact Hugh de Kevelioc, the next Earl of Chester, would have a reasonable claim via Henry I's eldest illegitimate son Robert of Gloucester.

Number 27
Number 27 was rebuilt in the 18thC and extended to the rear in the mid 19thC. The third and fourth storey windows are probably in 18thC openings, but have mid 19thC "Jacobethan" embellishment.

Number 29
Number 29 is an 18thC. building altered in the 19thC

Number 31
Number 31 was rebuilt in Vernacular Revival style by John Douglas in 1888, although he had submitted plans to do so in 1867 (and George Williams submitted plans in 1864). It replaced a building which was destroyed by fire.

Number 33 (The Old Bank)
Number 33 "encloses" the Row which ends with a staircase forming part of the frontage of the bank. The bulk of the yellow sandstone structure comes from 1859-60 and was designed by George Williams. Dixon and Co was a private bank established in 1813 by Thomas Dixon, a local collier. The bank may have been a reformation of the Shrewsbury bank Rowton, Rordkin & Marshall (est. 1808), also known as Chester & Shrewsbury Bank, which had failed during the financial panic of 1810 (see Commercial News Room ). The bank's partners were Thomas Dixon, Thomas Dixon, William Dixon & William Wardell by 1846; Thomas and Ambrose Dixon and William Wardell from 1860; Thomas Dixon, Ambrose Dixon and Robert Nicholson from 1870; and Thomas Dixon, Ambrose Dixon, Robert Nicholson and Thomas Henry Dixon from 1876.

Parr's Bank Ltd (c.1788-1918), was established in Winwick Street, Warrington, in 1788 as Parr & Co by Joseph Parr, sugar refiner, Thomas Lyon, brewer and sugar refiner, and Walter Kerfoot, attorney; it was also known as Warrington Bank. The bank was styled Parr, Lyon & Greenall from 1825 to 1851 and Parr, Lyon & Co from 1855 to 1865. Branches were opened in St Helens (1839) and Runcorn (1853). In 1865 the bank was reconstructed as a joint stock bank with limited liability, Parr’s Banking Co Ltd. The partners in the old business were paid £100,000 and the paid-up capital of the new bank was £100,000. Joseph Parr's son Thomas Parr was appointed chairman and the bank recruited John Dun, from Bank of Scotland, as its first general manager. Dixons & Co was acquired by Parr's Banking Co in 1878.

In 1918 Parr’s Bank Ltd amalgamated with London County & Westminster Bank Ltd of London, to form London County Westminster & Parr’s Bank Ltd.


 * Dixon and Co and Parr's Bank on the RBS website;
 * The Old Bank on Wikipedia;

St Werburgh's Street
In the 1890s, the Chester City Council decided to widen St Werburgh Street, which leads from Eastgate Street to Chester Cathedral, and arranged for the demolition of a row of old shops on its east side. The council intended to sell the vacant land in separate lots, but Chester architect John Douglas bought the entire length of the east side of the street and planned to create a series of buildings in a unified architectural design. Douglas originally intended to construct the buildings in stone with brick diapering in Gothic style. However, he was persuaded by the Duke of Westminster to include black-and-white half-timbering in his design.


 * St Werburgh Street at English Heritage;
 * St Werburgh Street on Wikipedia;
 * Old Music Hall at English Heritage;
 * St Nicholas Chapel (the old Music Hall) on Wikipedia;
 * St Werberghs Row at English Heritage;

North Side (St Werburghs Street to Eastgate


There are no Rows in this section of Eastgate Street, and records show that there never was any Row Walkway. Instead, there was oversailing of a street level pavement. All of these pavements were built upon, mostly during the 1750's after a flush of petitions filed after 1740.

Number 37
Number 37 was rebuilt 1892 by Charles A. Ewing for Messrs Dickson.

Number 39
Number 39 has effusive pargeted decoration dating from the early 20thC.

Number 41
Number 41 was at one time the home of "Woolworths".

Number 47
Number 47 was originally a Gentlemens Club and bank. The "Manchester Hall was located hereabouts. Writing in 1828 Seacome describes it as follows:


 * THE HALLS are large quadrangular buildings having squares in the centre with the exception of the Manchester Hall which consists merely of three double rows of shops erected against the walls of the adjoining tenements with narrow passages in front for public convenience. The Halls are opened during Chester July and October Fairs for the convenience of traders and manufacturers who resort thither with their goods from all parts of England and Ireland. The MANCHESTER HALL is situated in Eastgate street opposite the Royal Hotel. It consists of 44 shops and is employed for the sale of Manchester goods.

By the time Hughes writes the Manchester Hall had apparently become ruinous.


 * Grosvenor Club on Wikipedia;

Number 4
Number #4 was rebuilt in 1888 by T. M. Lockwood for the first Duke of Westminster in a very opulent and richly detailed Vernacular Revival style. It is contemporary with number 1 Bridge Street by the same architect.

Number 6
Number #6 was probably built in the 1830's. The third storey has a pair of Edwardian square 4-light oriels with patterned lead glazing above transoms, separated by a basket arch, all of painted timber, with base-beams, friezes and cornices.

Number 8
Number #8

Number 10
Number #10

Number 12
Number #12

Number 14
Number #14

Number 16
Number #16

Number 18
Number #18

Number 20
Number #20

Number 22
Number #22

Number 24
Number #24

Number 26
Number #26

Number 28-30 (Crypt Building)
Number #28 was rebuilt as an extension to the department store William and Charles Brown of the Browns of Chester family of drapers, in 1858, by T. M. Penson. The style of the building is "Gothic Revival", and it fronts two Medieval plots.

The plot to the west has one of the most impressive surviving vaulted undercrofts in the Rows. It is around 13m by 4m having a four bay quadripartite vault structure of well-finished sandstone.

Number 32-34 (Brown's Original Store)
A Greek Revival from 1828 which was the first element of what was to become Browns Department Store.

Number 36-38


Number #36-38are shops on the site of undercrofts and town houses. They were designed in 1857, by T. M. Penson, for William and Charles Brown, although they did not become part of the department store until 1912. The tenant of No.38 Eastgate Row was Bolland, wedding cake maker by appointment to Queen Victoria. This was Penson's first substantial work in the Vernacular Revival style. Hughes (1856) mentions it briefly, but is more concerned with the cakes than the architecture:


 * "A few yards farther up the street our eye rests on the gabled facade and handsome shop front of Mr Bolland, Confectioner, Bride Cake Manufacturer to her Majesty the Queen. What ! you are about to get married are you? Well then "a word to the wise is sufficient for them",- give an order to Mr Bolland for a Chester Bride Cake, and tell him it must be of the quality once supplied to Queen Victoria, and you'll never forget this "sweet and luscious reminiscence" of your approaching wedding-day."

CR 38/73 (3 March 1855) of the Brown Family Deeds in the Chester and Cheshire Archives is a:

'''Lease for 28 years from Mary Ann Dennill Lee of Bedward Place, Chester, spinster, and Richard Bolland of Eastgate Row, Chester, confectioner, of: (a) A house, shop and bakehouse in the Row on the S. side of Eastgate Street in the tenure of the said Richard Bolland; (b) A shop in the said Row in front of (a) in the tenure of George Prescott, watchmaker, together with adjoining stall, and, (c) A shop in Eastgate Street being underneath (a) with cellar, late in the tenure of John Dennis, then of the said Richard Bolland. To hold for the annual rent of £94, the said Richard Bolland having permission to remove (b) and make alterations etc.'''

..which implies that there was a partial enclosure of the Row with a cabin built on the stall-board and a short "Dark Row" behind.


 * Bolland at Grace's Guide to British Industrial History.

Number 40-44




Number #40-44

Hughes writes:


 * "And now for our own brief sketch of the Streets and Rows. This house near by with the eccentric gable and grotesquely carved front is the notable establishment of Messrs Piatt and Son chemists. The shop itself which is one of the most chaste and elegant in the city deserves something more than a mere passing notice and is worthy the careful inspection of every true lover of the beautiful. 'This shop', says the Chester Courant, 'exhibits one of the most perfect and beautiful examples of the application of architectural and artistic skill and taste to the purposes of business that we have lately witnessed. It is the joint work of Mr Penson and Mr J Morris whose combined talents in the constructive and decorative departments have produced a most successful and elegant illustration of the manner in which the antique character of our domestic architecture can be preserved with every regard for modern requirements and comforts. The wood work has been well executed by Mr Hankey the floor is paved with fancy tiles from the celebrated manufactory of Messrs Minton in Staffordshire and all the details and fittings of the establishment have been carried out with characteristic taste and propriety. We should hope that the good sense effected in such utter disregard of the architecture of the Rows seeing how beautifully their original appearance might been preserved to maintain the unique characteristic of the city.'"

Number 50
Number 50 was formerly an early 18thC building but was rebuilt 1963-65 with a facsimile facade, to Eastgate Street only. The Row walk descends to street level at the east of number 50's frontage.



Grosvenor Hotel
Formerly the "Royal" and before that the "Talbot" Broster (in 1781) writes:


 * The Talbot in Eastgate Street adjoining to which are the New Assembly Rooms built by Subscription in 1777. The Dancing Assemblies are once a Fortnight and the Card Assemblies once a Week during the Winter. Gentlemen Subscribers pay one Guinea. Ladies Half a Guinea. Non Subscribers Gentlemen pay Four Shillings and Sixpence. Ladies Three Shillings and Sixpence except at the Races and Affixes Gentlemen pay Six Shillings Ladies Three Shillings and Sixpence.

The "Golden Talbot" was recorded as being "ancient" in its 1751 mention in one of the local weekly newspapers (Adam's Weekly Courant):


 * That ancient and well-accustomed inn which is now fitted up in the neatest manner and held by Thomas Hickman (late agent to the Hon. Colonel Lee deceas'd) where all gentlemen, ladies and others who shall be pleased to make use of the said house may depend on the best accomodations and most civil usage.

Reputedly the building had been in operation during the reign of Elizabeth I. In 1784, the pub was demolished to make way for The Royal Hotel, built by the politician John Crewe of Crewe Hall. It became the headquarters of the Independent Party, who were the party opposed to the Grosvenor family (later to become the Dukes of Westminster). In 1815 it was purchased by Robert Grosvenor, who was at that time Earl Grosvenor (and who later became the 1st Marquess of Westminster). It became the city's "premier place to stay".

The Grosvenor Hotel was built 1863-6, being begun by T. M. Penson and completed by R. K. Penson and Ritchie for the then second Marquis of Westminster. It was the eleder Penson's last major work. It is in a bulky Vernacular Revival style and has no Row level walk-way, but instead a ground level colonnade. Hughes (in 1856) writes of the "Royal" as follows:


 * "This arcade on our left is the Royal Hotel Row, and the massive pile of buildings of which it forms a part, and from which it derives its name, is the Royal Hotel. The "Royal" is preeminently the chief Hotel of the city; for besides being the most central and commodious, it is at the same time par excellence the first and most fashionable of all our Chester Hotels, and under its present efficient management is certainly not surpassed by any similar provincial establishment. Its capacious Assembly Room is, with perhaps one exception the finest room the city can boast, and is consequently in high repute for all literary and musical entertainments. The Royal Hotel enjoys the singular felicity of being in three distinct parishes thus; in a religious as well as a commercial point of view "it stands well"!"

The illustration of the Royal provided by Hughes shows which features of the frontage of the building were retained when the building was altered in 1863-6. It was then renamed the Grosvenor Hotel. The illustration also shows a slight view into Newgate Street which used to follow the line of the passageway forming the entrance to the Grosvenor shopping center.


 * Chester Grosvenor on Wikipedia;
 * History Page on the Hotel's website;