Chester has been stacking shops since the Middle Ages
- The Rows — two tiers of trading
- A Roman fortress street plan
- A complete walkable wall circuit
- Two millennia of the same problem
How Chester grew
The short version, in order. Pick a year.
A Roman fortress
The modern street plan still follows it.
The Rows, and retail that predates the shop
Chester was a Roman fortress, and the modern street plan still follows it. Its most unusual feature is medieval: the Rows, continuous galleries running at first-floor level above the street-level shops, so that two tiers of trading run along the same frontage.
Nobody is entirely sure why they were built that way, which is part of the appeal. What is clear is that Chester has been solving the same problem for two millennia — how to fit as much commerce as possible along a walkable street without anybody having to leave it.
The complete circuit of city walls, still walkable, makes it one of the best-preserved trading towns in Britain.
What that means if you trade in Chester
Chester is prosperous, tourist-heavy and unusually close to the Welsh border, which means a real cross-border trade that a lot of local websites forget to mention.
It is also a conservation city, so a great many trades work under listed-building constraints.
What Chester businesses ask us for
Say if you cross into Wales
Flintshire and Wrexham are minutes away and customers will ask.
Listed building experience
In a city this protected, it is a credential worth leading with.
Residents, not visitors
Tourist footfall is not your customer unless you sell to it. Write for the people who live here.
How well do you know Chester?
Five quick questions. Get all five right and you win a 10% off discount code for your website. Every answer is somewhere on this page, so have a read if you get stuck.
Chester quiz · 1 of 5
What are the Rows?
Common questions
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