The Chester Ringroad

The Black & White Picture Place

Old Photographs & Drawings of Chester & Liverpool

The Building of Chester's Inner Ring Road

The first of three photographs showing the chaotic scenes that ensued in Chester during the construction of the Inner Ring Road, which was completed in January 1972.

By the early 1960s, eight trunk roads converged at the Cross in the heart of the city, resulting in extreme congestion and the noise, smell, vibration and hazardous confrontations between vehicles and pedestrians that went with it.
The solution arrived at was the construction of a new 'dual carriageway' road running around the heart of the city. Many different routes for the new road were considered and the one eventually chosen is ilustrated here.
Although doubtless responsible for a reduction in traffic in central Chester, the price paid was high- this picture shows how enormous areas of the townscape had to be obliterated to make space for the new road. It shows St. Oswald's Way during the course of construction, together with the high-rise flats- brand new when the picture was taken- which replaced older housing in the Newtown area.

Delamere Street, seen on the right, formerly joined up with Victoria Road and St.Anne Street (just out of shot on the left) until St. Oswald's Way was driven between them.
The cleared area in the centre distance has long been known by the curious name of Gorse Stacks, owing to part of it at one time being utilised for the safe storage outside the city walls of brushwood and suchlike fuel for baker's ovens. Once the centre of a thriving commercial district centred upon the Cattle Market, which was demolished in the 1960s to make way for a traffic island on the Inner Ring Road, it has long been generally accepted to be in urgent need of improvement- thirty years on, it remains a scruffy area devoted to the parking of cars.
Major reports in 1964 and 1968 recommended the area be redeveloped and the building of a hotel here was proposed, but not acted upon, at the end of the 1980s. Then, in 1995, it was proposed to enclose the entire area within a new 'Millennium Wall', within which would be created a landscaped 'cultural quarter' containing galleries, shops, restaurants and the like- plus a new public square and open air market.
Some of the 'science fiction-style' artist's impressions of the time gave rise to considerable local criticism- and no little hilarity. Moreover, it was estimated that the project would cost an astonishing £118 million, much of which was expected to come from the private sector and local authorities, but over £60 million was applied for from the Millennium Commission- unsuccessfully, as it turned out.
Without this crucial funding, the entire project foundered and no mention of it has since been heard- although, independently of this, an organisation by the name of Chester in Concert has tirelessly campaigned for the erection of a purpose-built concert hall, exhibition and arts centre on Gorse Stacks.

Moving on a few yards, here is the continuation of St.Oswald's Way just past the junction with Hoole Way. The road rises to meet the bridge that carries it over the Shropshire Union Canal.

The main road to the suburb of Hoole- where these words are being written- the road to Warrington and also the General Railway Station, was formerly Brook Street, just out of shot on the left. This too, was curtailed by the Ring Road and today, Brook Street is linked to the city merely by an unpleasant pedestrian underpass. Much reduced in status, it sadly shares little in the affluence of the nearby city centre.
That said, there continues, however, to be a lively atmosphere to the street, a welcome absence of bistros and the shops here continue to sell the new and second-hand goods that people actually seem to want...

The large building on the right started life as a cinema but today hosts a lively bingo club. The tall chimney in the background belongs to what was then the Griffiths Brother's mill, "Provender Millers and Merchants", which was later restored and converted into what is today the excellent Mill Hotel.
(You can see some more photographs of it around this time as viewed from the Shropshire Union Canal here)

Finally, here is what is now known as Brookdale Place, but was then the end of Brook Street, photographed from Cow Lane Bridge, which crosses the canal to connect with Frodsham Street and the city centre- the exact route of the old Roman road to Warrington. On the right is Union Terrace, which runs alongside the canal in the direction of the Chester Leadworks.

On the left was once the site of the Cattle Market. For centuries, livestock were driven in from the surrounding countryside to be sold here, but when this photograph was taken, the entire area had been recently flattened to make way for the widening of the road leading from a rebuilt Cow Lane Bridge, for car parking and for a traffic island at the junction of St.Oswald's Way and Hoole Way.

Reader Valerie Sheckler, now resident in Florida USA, wrote to us: "I spent many hours playing at the cattle market on George Street, hoping that a sheep or pig would escape as the farmers loaded and unloaded them. It was hilarious to watch grown men chasing a squealing pig down the road with kids in tow!"

Writing in the local press in 1999, Mrs J Moore recalled, "I've been reminiscing about the days of my youth when cows and sheep grazed on the middle of the big Roodee when the grass was higher than me. It was cows in summer and sheep in winter. I can't remember when they started to cut the grass by machine- some time after the war, I think.
I recall cows coming up and down Lower Bridge Street on their way to the cattle market at Gorse Stacks. Tuesdays and Thursdays were days when, if you had any sense, you kept away from the Cow Lane Bridge and Brook Street area unless you were at ease with cows, bulls, sheep, pigs etc. The cows were the worst (unless the occasional bull escaped) They went into shops, and so did the public trying to dodge them- hopefully not the same shops! My sister worked in Brook Street and remembered many a heart-stopping occasion. At least, she said, in Brook Street you could avoid them, but if you met the herds on Cow Lane Bridge, there was nowhere to hide!"

You can see the route of the new road marked out with white stakes.

At this time however, Brook Street started at this point and met Hoole Road at the bridge crossing the railway near the General Station. Today, Brook Street is much shorter, commencing at the 'black-and-white' pub in the distance and all the buildings to its right have vanished to make way for the Ring Road.

ringroad view All this will make more sense when you view this aerial photograph of the area, dating from around the same time.

Finally, illustrated here is the same area today, looking across Cow Lane Bridge towards St. Anne Street from the top of the Tesco supermarket car park. The red brick building on the corner of Union Terrace still stands and is now a ceramic tile retailer.
The Inner Ring Road curves around the site of the former Cattle Market- now a car park- and past the fire station on the corner of St. Anne Street and the bulk of the Northgate Arena, which, for the moment at least, houses Chester's swimming baths and sports facilities.
Here is a photograph by Chris Langford of the building of the Ring Road near Cuppin Street...