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Northgate part I

A Virtual Stroll Around the Walls of Chester

The Northgate Part II

Northgate III

Welcome to the second part of our exploration of the Northgate Street area

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rominent in Chester's Market Square- and here beautifully illustrated by Louise Raynor- is the Town Hall, which was built in 1864-9 in the Gothic style of the late 13th century by William Henry Lynn (1829-1915) of Belfast, to replace the 17th century Exchange which formerly stood in the middle of the square before burning down in 1862.

Lynn had been apprenticed to Charles Lanyon in Belfast in 1846, serving as clerk of works on Lanyon's Queen's College and County Court House. In 1854 he was taken into partnership by Lanyon and remained with him until 1872 when the firm was dissolved and Lynn set up practice on his own. He was a prolific designer with an eclectic taste and a scholarly interest in historic styles, at first mainly medieval but later also classical.

You can see some fine engravings of the old Exchange- and also a very early photograph of it by Henry Fox Talbot- here and here are some contemporary photographs of its grand Victorian replacement.
The design of the new building came about as the result of a competition which specified that the new Town Hall should be "substantial and economical rather than ornamental... and costing no more than £16,000".
It was inspired by the beautiful medieval Cloth Hall in Ypres, Belgium, which, for purposes of comparisom, is illustrated below. Finished in 1304, this was the most impressive commercial building of medieval northern Europe and leading example for the Flemish profane building style. During the First World War, it was completely destroyed, with the exception of the lower portion of the belfry and a few pieces of wall on the west wing, but was later lovingly rebuilt in its original form.
Lynn, seemingly ignoring the request for an 'economical' building, incorporated numerous fancy Gothic features and utilised two types of local sandstone, pink and grey. Clocks, however, were considered an extravagence too many and these were not added to the tower until as recently as 1987. (Only three were erected on the four-sided tower, however- the west side, facing towards Wales, has none, giving rise to a cynical local saying that "Chester people wouldn't give the time of day to the Welsh"!)
The new Town Hall was opened amid great ceremony in 1869 by the future King Edward VII and the Prime Minister of the day, William Gladstone. It somewhat overran the original budget of £16,000, eventually costing almost £50,000! The City Council meet in a grand chamber on the first floor which was rebuilt by local architect Thomas Lockwood after a disastrous fire which completely destroyed it in 1897.
Today, as well as the affairs of local government, the Town Hall is used for concerts, receptions, exhibitions and the like- and you can even get married here! The ornate interior is well worth viewing.
Two stunning panoramic movies of the interior of Chester Town Hall may, along with much else, be seen at the excellent Chester 360°.

Chester's main police station was situated on the ground floor until 1967, when its replacement was opened on a prime site opposite the Castle. (This huge and unsightly structure was thankfully demolished in 2006- you can see some pictures and learn a little about it in our chapter about the Roodee). The old police station's cells still exist; in April 1966, the infamous 'moors murderers', Ian Brady and Myra Hindley were held here before facing trial at Chester Assizes in the Castle. Whether connected or not, some have felt an 'evil presence' here and lights are said to switch on and off for no reasson and a mysterious 'figure in brown' has occassionally be seen...
Since Chester Police relocated to their new HQ, out of the city centre in Blacon, (the County police moved too, to a new HQ in Winsford) a small station has been re-established in its original location, accessible from the Princess Street side of the Town Hall.

At the north end of the square stands the handsome 1936 Art Deco Odeon Cinema by Harry Weedon- one of numerous provincial 'picture palaces' designed by him. Many Odeons of the period were faced with ceramic tiles, but, in keeping with the surrounding architecture, a more traditional red brick facing was used on just two- here in Chester and also at its (sadly recently-closed) sister house in York. The upstairs foyer houses an interesting display of Roman and medieval artifacts discovered during its construction.
Odeon cinema, Chester • It should be mentioned here that the owners of this, the last of our city centre cinemas, have recently declared it to be no longer profitable and- to the fury of Chester's people, sold it to a nightclub company! Learn more of our splendid and much-valued Odeon and of its future in our History of the Cinema in Chester.

A little further along the square is the elaboratly-moulded terracotta and red brick facade of Chester Library (detail illustrated below) which moved here from its now-demolished original home in St. John Street. It had been built in 1913 to a design by Philip Lockwood for the Westminster Coach and Motor Car Works, serving as a coachbuilders and motor showroom. From 1973-79 it housed a lively arts centre, the Chester Arts & Recreation Trust. When the building was converted to house the library, which was built in 1981-4, retaining the original facade, a replacement for the arts centre was promised but never materialised and, over fifteen years later, studio and gallery facilities are still sorely needed by Chester's community of creative artists.

You may be interested in these pictures of the changing face of the Chester Market Hall and this traffic-free view of the square as it appeared at the start of the 20th century...

In April 1998, we heard the first of a city council plan to "Improve the layout and appearance of Town Hall Square and its surroundings" and three years later, during the Summer of 2001, news started to appear in earnest about their radical redevelopment proposals in partnership with a company called London & Amsterdam Developments for the entire area between here and the Inner Ring Road.
Information about the so-called Northgate Development Proposals having grown considerably, we have now given them their own pages here...

One much-discussed change that has taken place in Northgate Street, however, was the addition, in March 2001, of a contra-flow cycle lane running from the Odeon to the Northgate in order to allow cyclists to exit the city centre against the flow of one-way traffic in a northerly direction.
Not a lot to ask, was it? Upon introduction, the scheme produced a storm of criticism from local motorists, traders, councillors and even the police, who declared that the lane would prove an obstruction to delivery vehicles and actually be dangerous to those cyclists foolish enough to use it. The police claimed it posed "an unacceptably high risk" and one councillor, Neil Fitton, branded it "irresponsible" and feared cyclists would be forced into the path of oncoming traffic.
The road is currently used by around 4,000 vehicles per day, mostly slow-moving but including a number of large delivery vehicles. Despite the cycle lane being difficult for motorists to miss, being painted a vivid red and well signposted- we would not be surprised, in the unfortunate event of someone being hurt while travelling on it, to hear a chorus of "I told you so's" from detractors and the doubtless sympathetic treatment of any offending driver.
Only time will tell. This writer has used the lane several times to date and encountered no problems at all. The lane is hardly attractive but seems well planned and allows ample room for all responsible users of the street. The scheme was evaluated over its first 12 months but has now become an accepted and much-needed permament feature of old Northgate Street.

A brief history of the Bluecoat

Back atop the Northgate and standing with our backs to the city, across the spectacular canal cutting we see on our left the Bluecoat School, the first charity school built outside London by the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge.(The SPCK still exists today of course, and maintains a bookshop in nearby St. Werburgh Street)
Architectural critic and author Nikolas Pevsner was rather unkind about the building: "It has all the usual ingredients, but somehow the composition seems lame".
We find it difficult to agree with him, and here is a recent photograph of the Bluecoat looking gorgeous in the spring sunshine. It is interesting to compare it with the very similar Bluecoat building in Liverpool, which now serves as an excellent arts centre- sadly an unknown concept here in Chester.
Behind the Bluecoat, and reached by way of its main entrance, are a charming group of almshouses built around a central courtyard- of which more later. They were also rebuilt in 1854, but are historically linked to a much older institution that formerly stood here, the Hospital of St John the Baptist, the Sigillum Hospitalis Sancti Iohannus Baptiste Cestrie, founded around the year 1190 by Randal Blundeville, Earl of Chester and Richmond and Duke of Brittany.
He gave the site in free alms and free of all services except the reception and care of the poor and ordered that the brothers of the hospital who travelled through Cheshire preaching and collecting alms should be honourably treated. The Earl's grant was made to the Virgin and All Saints but within a few years the hospital had acquired its dedication to St. John the Baptist and was usually known as the Hospital of St. John without the North Gate.
In the 13th century the hospital community, apart from the poor and the sick, evidently consisted of a prior, brethren, and lay servants living under religious rule.
Around 1240 the brethren were given permission to build a chapel "beyond the Foregate" (actually the Northgate) and within the precincts of the hospital, known as St. John Without the Northgate or Little St. John to distinguish it from St. John's Church located outside the SE corner of the city walls close to the Roman amphitheatre.
old engraving of Bluecoat

The extensive privileges given to the hospital by Ranulph III were a potential cause of conflict and early in its history arrangements were made to protect the interests of the existing churches in Chester. It was agreed between the brethren of the hospital and the Abbot of Chester Abbey that all servants of the hospital wearing secular clothes, apart from the gardener, the porter (claviger), the Prior's groom, and the woman who attended the sick, were to pay tithes and offerings to the mother church of St. Werburgh, as were those staying in the hospital and wearing secular clothes. Any servants engaging in trade were also to pay tithes and offerings to the mother church. Strangers and travellers, however, were allowed to receive the Sacraments and make offerings at the hospital church. A similar agreement concerning burial rights was reached in the early 13th century with the Abbot and Convent of St. Werburgh's and the Dean of St. John's. The brethren of the hospital were allowed to have a graveyard to bury the poor who died there and also men and women in confraternity with the hospital who had worn its habit in good health and for at least eight days.
Besides granting the site of the hospital and taking it under his special protection, Ranulph Ill agreed to maintain three beds for the poor and infirm at the rate of one penny a day in alms for each pauper; these alms of £4 11s a year were continued by the Crown after 1237 and were still being paid in the 16th century.
By the early 14th century the hospital had endowments worth £33 4s 10p a year. Members of the leading families of Chester made gifts to the hospital. However, much of the property lying outside Chester was alienated in return for small rent charges, doubtless for reasons of convenience. An inquiry in 1316 found that this short sighted policy had been carried out by successive priors and, in 1311 the master, William de Bache, was said to "have so impoverished the hospital as to impair its work of mercy and hospitality" and was removed from office.
A succession of inquisitions held between 1311 and 1341 revealed that the administration of the hospital had undergone a transformation similar to that of other hospitals at the period and was controlled by a master rather than a prior and chapter of brethren. Three chaplains celebrated there daily- two in the church and one in the hospital before the feeble and infirm inmates.
The hospital was to take in as many poor and sick as possible but thirteen beds were to be kept ready for the housing of "thirteen poore and sillie citizens, whereof each shall have for daily allowance a loaf of bread, a dish of pottage, half a gallon of competent ale and a piece of fish or flesh, as the day shall require".
almshouses behind Bluecaot School

In 1316 the hospital was unwisely transferred to the guardianship of Birkenhead Priory, which impoverished by the cost of providing hospitality to travellers crossing the River Mersey to Liverpool. The priory took over the responsibility of maintaining the services and almsgiving of the hospital on inadequate and diminished resources and the annual revenues of the hospital declined.

Right: the almshouses behind the old Bluecoat School

Then, in June 1341 the Black Prince took the hospital with its estates into his own hands and an inquiry was ordered into its government. Before the inquiry was held the custody of the hospital, which was reported to be "burdened with heavy charges and suffering from misrule", was given to a royal clerk. The inquiry found that the church, chapel, and hospital buildings were not adequately roofed and that two large houses had collapsed from age and lack of repair.
In the later Middle Ages most of the masters must have been non-resident with livings and official duties elsewhere and it became the practice of such masters to appoint chaplains to administer the hospital for them. In 1414 Henry V confirmed the privileges of the hospital: its tenants enjoyed freedom from jury service and suit of court in the city and county and freedom from local tolls and taxes. Nevertheless, the hospital remained impoverished and was exempted from taxation in the later 15th century.
There were complaints from the city authorities in the 1520s that, in the absence of the master, the hospital's constitution was not being properly observed and, in particular, "foreign people" were being given places.
The role of the hospital in housing the infirm poor of the city of Chester doubtless saved it from dissolution under the Henry VIII's Act of 1547 and the commissioners who visited Chester in May 1553 to list church goods found "nothing worth selling".
In the latter half of the 16th century many of the hospital's lands were leased out for very long periods by a succession of unscrupulous masters and in 1601 a commission was appointed to visit and reform the hospital. They found that the master, Richard Young, had not visited the hospital for over three years as he had been imprisoned for debt in Chester Castle. He was immediately removed from the office of master.
In February 1644 all the stone buildings of the hospital and chapel and the surrounding wall were demolished so as not to provide cover to the Parliamentary forces then besieging the city. No trace is left of the original hospital church or other buildings and nothing, sadly, is known of their appearance.
bluecoat boy

But for the Civil War- and allowing for the philistinism of modern developers- Chester would doubtless today be blessed with considerably more ancient buildings outside the Walls, as may be plainly seen by the melancholy account written after the siege by Randle Holme III.
In June 1658 Oliver Cromwell granted the site and the lands of the hospital and the office of keeper or warden to the town corporation. The mayor was to act as warden and use the revenues to relieve the poor and rebuild the hospital. At the Restoration the corporation petitioned the Crown for the continuation of the arrangement to relieve the increasingly numerous poor in the city but the wardenship was granted for life to Colonel Roger Whitley who is said to have rebuilt the hospital. In 1685 the corporation secured the reversion of the wardenship with all the hospital lands but, although Whitley died in 1697, the corporation did not obtain the hospital seal and records until 1703.
In 1717 fine new buildings were erected on the site including the Bluecoat Charity School facing Northgate Street. The public subscription towards its erection had actually commenced some years earlier, in 1700 under the auspices of Dr. Nicholas Stratford, who was Bishop of Chester 1689-1707. He had been dead for ten years when the the school was eventually built. The 25 boys attending the school as boarders were clothed in blue and educated at the expense of the charity and 120 others, known as Green Caps were taught there as day-scholars.
A new chapel was built in the southern wing- closest to the Northgate- commemorated today by the little cross and bell which still exist on its roof.
At the same time, to the rear of the new school were raised six single storeyed almshouses. The almswomen, or "chapel-yard widows", were supported from the revenues of the hospital lands but the bulk of the considerable income of the hospital was diverted by the corporation for other purposes. Indeed, in 1835 it came to light that the corporation had grossly mismanaged the property- only £85 of the annual income of £600 was applied to the purposes of the hospital- including the repair of the buildings, the stipend of a chaplain, and small allowances to the inmates. An action alleging misappropriation of funds was brought against the corporation in Chancery.
In 1836 the Lord Chancellor ordered the appointment of a body of independent trustees to administer the hospital estates, a move which the corporation opposed until 1848. The almshouses have since that time been administered by trustees under successive schemes of management. A scheme of 1891, still in operation in 1926, provided for the support in the almshouses, with the assistance of a chaplain and a beadle, of thirteen poor of either sex and over 50 years of age who had been reduced by misfortune from better circumstances. The numbers and qualifications were thus similar to those found in the 14th century.
The Chester Infirmary was founded here during the second half of the eighteenth century at a time that saw a new era on many signs of social conscience and philanthropic ventures in its contribution to the poor. The infirmary was founded as a charitable institution for the treatment of the sick poor, largely owing to a bequest of £300 from Dr Stratford in 1753. It was housed in an unoccupied part of the upper floor of the Blue Coat School. At a meeting in June 1755, it was decided that part of the school should be fitted up on a temporary basis until the completion of a fine new building on the other side of the city close to the Roodee (a building that survives to this day, albeit converted into luxury apartments). The infirmary was support by subscriptions and donations. The first patient was one William Thomson of St. Mary's Parish, who was admitted with a wounded hand on November 11th 1755.

The Bluecoat School was restored and the almshouses rebuilt in 1854, at which time various Roman roof tiles and bronze articles were found. The recently-repainted figure of a Bluecoat boy visible in a niche on the front of the building (illustrated above) was also added at this time. The model for this statue was one John Coppack, who was 14 years old at the time. After leaving the Bluecoat School, he went to work for the Shropshire Union Canal Company, lived in Garden Lane (just round the corner)- and became the father of 14 children!
The school finally closed in 1949 since when the buildings have been used for a variety of purposes, such as retail and office premises, adult education and a youth club. Then, in September 1996, it became the new home of the history department of the University of Chester. Various lecture rooms have been created from the former dormitories and headmaster's study, the old chapel is now the reception area and the former schoolroom is to be used by the city's archaeologists.
In early 2003, the Bluecoat's basement was converted to house a new employment and 'enterprise' centre.
In April 2006, a brand new almshouse- the first to be built since the mid-19th century- was opened in the square behind the Bluecoat. Watched by its first tenant, Mary Pritchard, the formal opening of the new one-bedroom self-contained property was carried out by the Lord Mayor and the Chairman of the body that today administers the almshouses, the Chester Municipal Charities.

Opposite the Bluecoat formerly stood a Bridewell or House of Correction where 'petty' crimes were punished by confinement and hard labour. It seems also to have served as a sort of workhouse; in 1685, Ann Mynshull left in her will "rents for the maintainance of poor freemen's children at work in a house called the House of Correction standinge neare unto the Northgate".

Crossing the canal between the Bluecoat and the wall of the former tollhouse outside the Northgate, you can see a dangerous-looking stone footbridge- illustrated here- known as the Bridge of Sighs.
This was built by Joseph Turner (who was also the architect of the Bridgegate and the Watergate) in July 1793 for the sum of £20 in order to prevent the many, often successful, attempts to rescue condemned prisoners in the Northgate Gaol when they crossed the canal cutting to the chapel of Little St. John and the 'apartment made for prisoners' to receive the last rites of the church before their execution.
For a while after the cutting was made, these services were held in the gaol itself, but when an over-fastidious chaplain protested at having to hold services there, it was decided to erect the bridge. That it would also serve as a buttress to hold apart the sides of the deep cutting doubtless made the money easier to raise.
bridge of sighs

The bridge was formerly equiped with iron railings on either side to prevent suicidal leaps into the deep chasm below. These, in common with many of those throughout the Kingdom- including the author's home- were taken away to be recycled into munitions during the First World War.
Though the chapel and the dreadful prison are long gone, the Bridge of Sighs remains- despite the city authorities ordering its removal in 1821- accessible now only to the pigeons, but a source of great fascination to visitors to this day.
The long, low building on the left of our photograph, to which the bridge attaches but, curiously, allows no access, is today a private residence but once served as a school- reader Charles Jones wrote to tell us that it was run by a Miss Smith and that his mother Dorothy, born 1919, had studied there. Before that, it served as a tollhouse from where monies were collected from those entering the town to conduct business and attend the fairs and markets. These tolls, known as murage, were used specifically for the upkeep of the city walls.
• We will be further discussing both the murage of the past and recent concern over the present condition of Chester's city walls when we shortly reach our North Wall chapter..

Standing upon the Northgate looking away from the town, on our right is a large and ornate Victorian pub, the Bull & Stirrup, whose interesting name recollects the presence of a cattle market formerly situated on nearby Gorse Stacks, and also the stirrup cup - or 'one for the road'- doubtless frequently enjoyed by the market's customers before departing for their farms. The pub has recently undergone a radical refurbishment. Opposite this is Canal Street which, if followed, would take you down to the Shropshire Union Canal and the fascinating area around Tower Wharf, which we will be visiting later in our stroll.

Looking ahead, we see at the further end of Upper Northgate Street another large public house, the George & Dragon at which point the road divides- the right branch to Eastham and Liverpool and the left to Chester's ancient outlying harbours at Neston, Dawpool, Parkgate and Meols on the Wirral Peninsula.
This junction certainly existed in Roman times- and probably much earlier- and, as with the other main routes leading to their fortress, the rough-hewn memorial stones of a Roman cemetery occupied each side of the road.
Later, the site of the modern pub was occupied by a church dedicated to St. Thomas á Becket, shown on Daniel King's plan of Chester c.1620. It was converted into a private house by Richard Dutton, who was Mayor in 1627, and was afterwards known as Jolly's Hall. In 1645, during the Civil War, it shared the fate of most of the other buildings standing outside the city walls, being either burned by the besiegers or demolished by the townspeople themselves so as not to afford shelter to Parliamentary snipers. It is mentioned by Randle Holme III in his moving description of the devastation inflicted upon the city at that time:
"Without the Northgate, from the said gate to the last house, Mr. Duttons (Jollye's Hall), all burned and consumed to the ground, with all the lanes to the same, with the Chappelle of Little St. John, not to be found..."
However, at least part of it must have survived, as the 1795 Chester Directory mentions the old church "being used as a barn". Later still, the site was occupied by John Fletcher's large mansion, "Surmounted by a glass cupola, forming an excellent observatory."

Our photograph shows the George and Dragon during the 1930s, but it looks much the same today- except, of course, for the surrounding roads, which have got much busier!

With such a colourful history, it is not surprising that this is yet another Chester pub with a reputation for being haunted. The etherial occupant is known to the staff as 'George' (a name shared in common with many of Chester's pub ghosts) and one of them told us he commonly made his presence known at the end of the night when they were cleaning up- "He really hates the vacuum cleaner!"
'George' may actually have been around for quite some time, as legend has it that it is the ghost of a Roman soldier who paces the pub. We may ask why he should eternally revisit this particular spot? Chester was, of course, a fortress town filled once with such men, but the site of the George & Dragon is outside the Decumana, or North Gate and was utilised as a burial ground. As the practical Romans, not wishing to waste space with the fortress, always laid their dead to rest outside the defensive walls, this upper part of Parkgate Road would once have been lined with elaborate memorials to depated citizens and servicemen.
Our particular Roman soldier is said to have fallen in love with a beautiful Welsh girl. While he should have been on sentry duty at the Decumana Gate, he was in the habit of slipping off beyond the walls to meet his love. This young lady was not what she seemed however, and one night, while she kept the sentry occupied, a raiding party led by her brothers gained entry into the garrison, massacring many of its complement of soldiers who were sleeping in their beds.
The hapless soldier would have certainly been executed after such dereliction of duty. For this transgression of the strict Roman code of honour and obedience there would have been no mercy. The unfortunate man perhaps even took his own life out of remorse, and his ghost is now said to pass backwards and forwards through the walls of the George & Dragon, never seen, only heard, forever pacing, to this day. As an honourable burial would not have been afforded him, perhaps the soldier seeks his rest at the site of the former cemetery. Could he be seeking his murdered comrades to ask their forgiveness? Whatever the reason for his wanderings, he remains "the lost legionary".

(Until the 1960s, across town on the corner of Frodsham Street and Foregate Street stood for centuries the Bear's Paw Inn. Today, the site is occupied by a utilitarian structure which houses a branch of H. Samuels jewellers. Conversing with the staff recently, we were fascinated to discover that they were all familiar with a ghost of their own- also known as George, doubtless a long-standing habituee of the long-vanished pub, who just didn't want to go home at closing time!)
We will be visiting more of the inns of Northgate Street in our next chapter and here is a list of the many, many other Chester pubs that have ceased to be...

Of more recent times, the view beyond the Northgate has been considerably altered by the construction of the Fountains Roundabout as part of the 1960s Inner Ring Road scheme. This was described by the press at the time of its opening in 1967 as "Chester's most notable non-place"- it was provided with lawns, flowerbeds and fountains, but allowed no safe pedestrian access. Pesvenor commented, "The roundabout with the well-intentioned fountain destroys the street continuity, and indeed the town scale".

Even worse, to cross the busy Ring Road, one is forced to burrow under it via a series of unpleasant subways. Many local people felt that, after thirty years, this sorry piece of town planning was long overdue for improvement and, in fact, a couple of these subways have already been filled in and replaced with Pelican crossings.

• A stunning panoramic movie of Northgate Street may be seen at Chester 360º

But now we'll move on to the final part of our exploration of the Northgate Street area: Inns and Brewers ...

Curiousities from Chester's History no. 2