Shopping in Chester
Two levels of shops, seven hundred years old
A covered medieval shopping street, a Victorian arcade, a new market hall and a run of independents — all inside a walled square mile.
Chester is one of the best shopping cities in the north of England, and the reason is structural rather than commercial. The four main streets radiate from one crossroads, they are largely pedestrianised, and along most of them the shops are stacked two deep — street level, and a covered gallery above reached by steps.
You can cross the whole centre under cover, which in this part of the country is not a small thing.
The short version
The Rows
Photo: Christopher Hilton (CC BY-SA 2.0), via Wikimedia CommonsStart here
The Rows are the thing to understand first. On Eastgate Street, Watergate Street and Upper Bridge Street — and for a short stretch of Northgate Street — there are two levels of shops: one at pavement level and a second set back behind a continuous covered walkway at first-floor level, reached by steps at intervals.
Practically, that means half the retail in Chester is invisible from the pavement. The Row-level units are smaller, the rents are lower and the tenants are more interesting: independent jewellers, booksellers, vintage clothing, coffee. If you only walk at street level you will see the same chains as everywhere else and miss the reason people rate Chester for shopping.
Access is by steps, and a full circuit of the upper level is not step-free, though several stretches have level entry from side streets.
Street by street
Photo: Jaggery (CC BY-SA 2.0), via Wikimedia CommonsWhere to go for what
Eastgate Street is the main run — the biggest names, the widest pavement, and the Eastgate Clock at the end of it. Bridge Street continues the same mix south towards the river and has the best of the Row-level independents.
Watergate Street is the quietest and most rewarding of the four: antiques, galleries, one-off shops, and the finest surviving timber buildings in the city at Bishop Lloyd’s House and Leche House. Northgate Street runs up past the town hall and the cathedral to the new market, and has become the food and drink end of town.
Off the main four, look at St Werburgh Street for John Douglas’s eleven-gabled range opposite the cathedral, and Godstall Lane, a narrow passage between Eastgate and St Werburgh Street lined with small bars and cafés.
Chester Market
Photo: Stephen McKay (CC BY-SA 2.0) via Wikimedia CommonsExchange Square, since November 2022
The market moved out of the 1967 Forum building on 8 November 2022 and into a new hall behind the Town Hall, with around sixty oak stalls. It has become the best place to eat in the city centre — a proper mix of traders, street food, a bar, and enough seating to make it work as a destination rather than a food court.
It is open until 10pm from Tuesday to Saturday and closed on Mondays. The market anchors the wider Northgate development, and the square outside it is where the Christmas market spills to in December.
The covered centres
Photo: Graham Robson (CC BY-SA 2.0), via Wikimedia Commons1964, and better than it sounds
The Grosvenor Shopping Centre opened in 1964 to a design by Sir Percy Thomas and Son for the Grosvenor-Laing partnership — an early example of the covered precinct, and one of the few dropped into the middle of a medieval street grid rather than onto a cleared site. Whatever you think of the principle, it kept Chester’s retail heart inside the walls at a time when most English cities were losing theirs to the ring road.
Inside it is glass-roofed, well kept and full of the mid-market names. Entrances open onto Eastgate Street, Bridge Street and Pepper Street, so it works as a shortcut as much as a destination.
Independents and markets
Where to go if you did not come for the chains.
The concentration of independent shops is highest at Row level on Bridge Street and along Watergate Street. Beyond the centre, Hoole — ten minutes on foot from the station — has a run of independent shops, delis and cafés along Faulkner Street that locals rate above anything in town.
There is a regular artisan and producers’ market in the city centre through the year, and the Chester Food, Drink and Lifestyle Festival at the racecourse over the Easter weekend is the biggest food shopping event in the calendar.
See what’s on through the year
Practical
Most of the centre is pedestrianised from mid-morning. The nearest large car parks are the Grosvenor Precinct multi-storey off Pepper Street and the Little Roodee by the river, and all three Park and Ride sites drop you at the edge of the walled city — that is much the easiest option on a Saturday or during race weeks.
The station is a 15-minute walk or a short bus ride from the Cross. If you are combining shopping with sightseeing, the walls walk starts and finishes within a few steps of Eastgate Street, and the cathedral is free to enter.
Getting here and where to park · Where to eat and drink · The history of the Rows
Plan the rest of your trip
Everything else you need for a visit to Chester.
Attractions · What’s on · Eat and drink · Accommodation · Day trips · History
Photographs are reproduced under Creative Commons licences; the photographer and licence are credited beneath each image.
Hero photograph: Tilman2007 (CC BY-SA 4.0), via Wikimedia Commons