Eastgate Street Row South
This elegant Row is as much for strolling as for shopping. No retail opportunity has been missed, from the handsome shops to the glass-and-wood booths and the stallboards. You’ll also discover a legendary department store, Browns of Chester…
How to use this route
This route is available to listen to as you walk by using the player above or you can follow it using the written guide available below. On the map below you will see a trail made up of numbered points. From the starting point (Number 1), follow along the marked route, making sure to stop and view the points along the way. There are blue map pins indicating points of interest, you can tap or click on these to find out more. When you come to the end of the route, you will see a blue map pin – tap or click on this to reveal more information about the next leg of the tour, and click again to go to the next leg’s route.
Want to find out more?
To delve deeper into The Rows, browse the local history publications in the Visitor Information Centre and public reference library in Storyhouse, both on Northgate Street. Guided tours are available with the Guild of Chester Tour Guides and Roman Tours. For informaton about disabled access, see AccessAble.
Key Trail Information
Duration
10 - 30 Minutes
Start Point
50 Eastgate Street South Row, Chester, CH1 1LF, United Kingdom
End Point
4 Eastgate Street South Row, Chester, CH1 1LF, United Kingdom
Directions
From the starting point of this section of our trail, just outside the Grosvenor Shopping Centre, turn your back on the walls and Eastgate with its ornate clock – must-sees on your general exploration of the city – and head onto the Row.
All the composite parts of these curious historic structures are present. Your feet pass over wooden boards, flagstones, and tiles. The ceilings above your head rise and dip. Ahead snakes the long walkway, punctuated by arches hung with shop signs
On your left are the shopfronts, some double-bayed. On your right are the stallboards – the large slabs of wood, tile or stone between the balustrade and the passageway. They’re bookended by glass cabinets and sometimes make way for glass and wood booths that form miniature shops. All these tools have provided generations of traders with ways to display and sell goods.
The centrepiece of this Row is the department store Browns of Chester (no 36), now sadly between tenants. The Browns shopping experience is long gone but still fondly remembered by locals, especially for the fact that people would dress up to shop in its hallowed halls.
Beyond Browns, the Row continues to rise gently. Stop for a moment at the doorway to no 22 to study an exposed section of wattle-and-daub wall encased in glass.
The wooden shopfronts, booths and stallboards in this stretch are particularly polished, and the balcony arches open wide to offer big views of black-and-white Northgate Corner and the red sandstone hulk of St Peter’s church.
The Row ends at Eastgate Corner, the start of the next part of our circular journey through the Chester Rows.
Download your map of the rows
Artist and illustrator Helen Cann has created a gorgeous, historically-inspired map to help you explore Chester's Rows.
Download the map