Chester Timeline - Georgian

Georgian Splendour

By the 1700's, Chester had regained its position as the main retailing centre for Cheshire and North Wales. The city had also built a reputation for fine luxury goods. Local gentry frequently visited Chester for shopping and entertainment.

[Right] Drawing Room c. 1780 one of the Museum period displays from No. 20 Castle Street.

Fashionable society attended balls, dinners, concerts, card-evenings and lectures in the many assembly rooms and hotels within the city. The Theatre Royal was one of the country's earliest licensed provincial theatres. The highlight of the social season was the Spring Horse Racing held at the Roodee during the first week in May.

Whilst 'in town' society needed somewhere to stay. Chester began to expand as brick buildings replaced the earlier wooden houses. Fashionable villas were constructed outside the city walls. Empty land within the walls was also developed. Brick built Georgian terraces sprang up across the city. Many half-timbered houses were demolished or refaced in brick. Some of the famous "Rows" were enclosed, especially along Lower Bridge Street.

Many new commercial and public buildings were constructed. In 1780, Susannah Towsey (later Brown) established, with her sister, a small drapery shop on Eastgate Street. This was to become the foundation of the famous Browns of Chester Department Store.

The town walls no longer served a defensive purpose and were refurbished as a "promenade". The medieval gateways were removed and replaced by ornamental bridges. Sections of the defensive ditches formed part of a new canal system linking Chester to Nantwich.

By the end of the 18^th Century much of the medieval castle was ruinous. Thomas Harrison won a competition to build a vast new complex of law courts and prison on the site of the outer bailey. Harrison also built a new bridge across the River Dee. The Grosvenor Bridge, was opened by Princess Victoria in 1832. The Victorian age had arrived.

[Above] Poster advertising a performance of "The Road to Ruin" at the Theatre Royal, Chester on 21st November 1792. From the Dennis Critchley Theatre and Cinema collection, donated to the Museum in 1999.

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