Once more returning to Lower Bridge Street, we have before us the Bridgegate, and two or three choice but eccentric-looking houses of the wood and plaster type, as depicted in our engraving.
Passing under the Bridgegate, by the Dee Mills and Old Bridge, we might, if we chose, wander forth into Handbridge, were there anything in that suburb deserving our especial notice. As it is, however, we will make good our return to The Cross, and pursue, in the next chapter, our peregrinations through the Streets of “rare old Chester!”
The view here engraved affords a capital idea of the old timber houses still glorifying the city; while we gain, at the same time, such a prospect of the Bridge Gate as is not to be obtained from any other point.
CHAPTER VIII.
Northgate Street.—Commercial Buildings.—The Rows.—The Exchange.—Music Hall and Old Theatre.—Chester Cathedral.—St. Oswald’s Church.—The Cloisters and Chapter-House.—Promptuarium, Refectory, and King’s School.
Our tours of inspection have, so far, been all down hill; let us now, then, take higher ground, and move glibly onward up Northgate Street.
Passing St. Peter’s Church, at the corner of the street, we come immediately to that classic pile of white freestone—the Commercial Buildings and News Room, erected in 1808, from the designs of Mr. T. Harrison, the architect of the Castle and of the Grosvenor Bridge.
To this succeeds Shoemaker’s Row, extending about a hundred yards along the left side of the street. The Row upon the right hand used formerly to be known as Broken-shin Row, from the rugged and uneven character of the thoroughfare, and the manifest dangers that threatened the shins of those who ventured along it. Originally it is said to have been double its present length; but modern innovation—that wolf in sheep’s clothing—has here, as elsewhere, played terrible havoc with “ye good olde citie.”
A little higher up than this latter-named Row, we may profitably turn round, and survey, from this slight eminence, the lower part of the Street we have just traversed, together with the curious architecture of the houses in Shoemaker’s Row. The scene is a picturesque one, with its oddly-carved beams and overhanging gables, which look as if ready to fall down on the beholder. But in order more fully to impress it on your memory, we present you farther on with a faithful sketch of Northgate Street, as seen from this point.