The Black & White Picture Place

Details from John McGahey's View of Chester from a Balloon 1855:

5. The Cathedral

When John McGahey floated above Chester in 1855, he captured this fine view of the medieval cathedral as it appeared before being subject to a series of radical and- mostly- necessary restorations. Author and traveller Daniel Defoe had written of it a century earlier, " 'tis built of a red, sandy, ill-looking stone, which takes much from the beauty of it, and which yielding to the weather, seems to crumble, and suffer by time, which much defaces the building". Writing in 1854, just a year before this view was made, local author and guide Thomas Hughes observed "time has, of course, been at work here, as elsewhere, gnawing away at the old red sandstone; but there is still enough left to give us an idea of its ancient beauty... but now fast going to decay". Sir George Gilbert Scott, who undertook extensive restoration here in 1868-76, wrote of the main tower, which had been originally built about 1210, as a "picturesque and crumbling pile of soft sandstone, inhabited by jackdaws". The churchyard is seen to be full to capacity with gravestones. These have since been cleared away and replaced with flower beds and benches. To the right of the cathedral may be seen the elegant houses surrounding Abbey Square, built 'after the London fashion' between the years 1754 and 1761- although the western terrace (parallel with Northgate Street) was not completed until the 1820s- on the site of the Abbey's brewery and bakehouse. The line of Northgate Street cuts across the top of the picture- the Via Decumanus of the Roman fortress of Deva- terminating at the very centre of the old town, The Cross. Just above the Cathedral may be seen the cupola atop the roof of the 17th century Exchange which formerly stood in the middle of the Market Square before burning down in 1862- a mere seven years after its appearance in this drawing. Its replacement was the much larger Gothic style Town Hall, which was erected on the west side of the Market Square between 1864-9. The city wall cuts across the bottom of the picture, below which is the open area of the Kaleyards, the former vegetable gardens of the monks of the Abbey. This area is today used as a car park.   Other enlarged sections from McGahey's wonderful illustration: The Old Port Grosvenor Bridge St. John's Church The Northgate The Kaleyards

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