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In the post - war years, the City Council found their
council officers proliferating, taking up all sorts of nearby accommodation . There was a need to concentrate the
officers round the Town Hall and bring them up to date .Also so many of the city's shopping areas were being reconstructed
that the need was felt to up-grade the popular Market Hall area It was to be redeveloped into the Forum : a modern complex of shops and council offices with a central mall leading to the Gateway Theater at the rear and on one side , an indoor market on the other, Here the same mixture of produce as in the centuries before could be bought, meat, cheese and dairy produce, green, fish, and health supplements. The foundation stone for the new market, part of the Forum shopping center was laid on April 8 1962 . |
Chester Chronicle April 27th
1963
" In these innovating times our task ,
in ordering the changes that are inevitable , is to preserve something of the old city ' s character . To do this
are we to shut out the ideas of our own time and go on repeating Tudor ? The answer must be firmly No . But I am
pondering what kind of pattern there will be in Northgate - street with a modern Market, a Victorian Gothic Town
Hall , the mellowed sandstone of the Cathedral , the black and white reproduction here and there, and the contemporary
investment - lot style ... Chester is not Coventry . We are not starting afresh here
with a free hand at an entirely contemporary and experimental design for modern living . The planners, architects,
and developers must not be permitted to alter the whole character of the place as a sort of exercise in commercial
convenience . "
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Chester Chronicle May 1963 " To the custodians of Chester a change of ownership, the falling in or foreclosure of a lease , are matters of a moment . The agents of change are the motor car, the Corporation (with its market, north - west central development and inner ring ), the private developers (office blocks and shops), and Grosvenor - Laing ( with their £3m plan for a covered shopping precinct ) . |
This last scheme is new townish in conception and open to objection by the more conservative on that ground alone were it not for its imaginative extension and adaptation of the idea of the Rows as existing pedestrian precincts. The Grosvenor - Laing scheme is a modern treatment of an original and unique Chester notion . "
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The Market Hall Designed by M . T. M . Gradon of Michael Lyell Associate Architects of London . Built by Costain and Sons Ltd. of Chester & Liverpool would be moved , into a new building further back with car- parks underneath and buses near ; the market site and space at the back would be used for offices ; at street level there would be new shops along the front and a wide open arcade leading past other new shops to the Market hall and offices entrance . Over the pavement would be a canopy to protect passers - by from the weather , since to do this with rows or arcades was the fashion in the city . |
Chester Chronicle
November 5th 1965 Opening of Grosvenor Precinct
" For centuries Chester has had what the modern town planners call precincts in the shape of the Rows ; and
there was some fear that when the time inevitable came for the extensive commercial redevelopment in the city ,
the Rows might in some way loose its character . The fears have proved groundless . In the event the architects
, Sir Percy Thomas and Son , in their revitalization of the backlands of Eastgate Street South and Bridge Street
East , with Pepper Row or the inner ring road as the enclosing arm , have incorporated the existing Rows into the
precinct and extended the idea - which simply is a covered gallery with interior level of shops above the street
- into a continental - style piazza itself . So that the Grosvenor - Laing development though conforming to twentieth
century concepts of town planning , is uniquely a Chester adaptation . Altogether it is an imaginative piece of
design with a wholly functional purpose . "
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June 17th 1967 New Public Market The Victorian Market Hall in Northgate Street closed its doors to the public for the last time on Saturday 17 June A commentator at the time said " It is too early yet for Cestrians to have forgotten this solid Victorian building with its heavy classical stone facade -- its large wide - open trading area surrounded by shops and covered over with high iron roofs supported on stanchions , and the whole enclosed with roof sheeting and glazing to give light , airy , market place , big enough to serve the growing city of Chester for more than a hundred years . " ( Bygone Chester Chronicle ) |
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95% of the traders moved into the New Market . It was
a move of about 50 yards up hill , the council set aside about one dozen trucks to help with the move . The oldest
stall holder Mrs. Elizabeth Huxley who had the sweets stall felt the atmosphere will be lost in the move . Mr. Alan Pickup a trader for 14 years felt the entrance to be inadequate , Mr. P. Lewis a Butcher for 22 years felt that with the Civic Theater, Hotel and new shops it could become the New City Center. Jim Barnes had been in business since the war and was dissatisfied with the Fish Market . |
New Cattle Market 1966 / 67 The Committee considered the provision of a new Cattle Market .
1970's The foundations of the medieval market stalls which stood outside the Little Abbey Gateway
were found during
the construction of the Jobcentre .
