THE ROWS
 |
The Rows are a remarkable feature of Chester architecture, their special characteristic is the double row of shops, one at street level and the other at first-floor level, while a covered footway provides a continuous thoroughfare for pedestrians on the upper level.the footway is in addition to the ordinary footway at street level, and that the two are connected by frequent flights of steps. Nor do the Rows look directly down to the street; they give access to a series of stalls or balconies where whoever chooses may linger undisturbed by the stream of passers-by and view the street below. | |
|
Looking from the Cross at Bridge St Row |
 |
The Rows are confined to what were once the main streets of the Roman city. Numerous
theories have been advanced as to their origin. Some have seen in them a desire on the part of early builders to
emulate and imitate the Roman buildings still surviving. This however seems improbable, as the desolation of the centuries following the Roman period and the ravages of the Anglo-Saxon invader cannot have left much more than the ruins of the original city standing. A more likely theory is that later builders erected their houses on top of the massive |
|
|
Eastgate Row 1999 |
Roman ruins which, buried in soil and rubbish as they no doubt were, would still stand considerably above the ordinary street level. The advantages of a pathway at first-floor level were too obvious to be overlooked, as the condition of the street below, badly paved, encumbered with horses and wagons, littered with refuse, and with a rough channel in the centre as the only drain, made things decidedly unpleasant for the medieval pedestrian.
|
|
On the first-floor level the merchant would have an opportunity of attracting customers,
who would be able to make their purchases in comparative peace, while the natural advantages of the street-level
frontages induced others to open their shops there. One thus has the double tier of houses and shops so conspicuous
in present-day Chester. The covering-in of the Rows was merely a matter of time and convenience. The Rows cannot be dated back further than 1275, when almost the whole of Chester was destroyed by a devastating fire. The earliest reference in the city records to the Rows is in 1331, when mention is made of three Rows - Ironmongers' Row, Northgate Street; and Baxter Row and Cooks' Row in Eastgate Street. |
|
|
Bishops Lloyd Palace |
It was the custom in medirval towns that persons following the same trade should cluster together. Those who were concerned with the supply of food would naturally be found near to one another in the centre of the city. In Watergate Street were the Flesheners (Butchers' Row) and the Fishmongers. The butter shops and the milk stoups were in Eastgate Street. Mercers' Row was in Bridge Street. There were also Pepper Alley Row, Shoemakers' Row, and lastly, Broken-shin Row, an obvious reference to the rugged and uneven character of the thoroughfare.
The Rows are confined to what were once the main streets of the Roman city. Numerous theories have been advanced as to their origin. Some have seen in them a desire on the part of early builders to emulate and imitate the Roman buildings still surviving. This however seems improbable, as the desolation of the centuries following the Roman period and the ravages of the Anglo-Saxon invader cannot have left much more than the ruins of the original city standing. A more likely theory is that later builders erected their houses on top of the massive Roman ruins which, buried in soil and rubbish as they no doubt were, would still stand considerably above the ordinary street level.
The advantages of a pathway at first-floor level were too obvious to be overlooked, as the condition of the street below, badly paved, encumbered with horses and wagons, littered with refuse, and with a rough channel in the centre as the only drain, made things decidedly unpleasant for the medieval pedestrian. On the first-floor level the merchant would have an opportunity of attracting customers, who would be able to make their purchases in comparative peace, while the natural advantages of the street-level frontages induced others to open their shops there. One thus has the double tier of houses and shops so conspicuous in present-day Chester. The covering-in of the Rows was merely a matter of time and convenience.
