Chester

The Chester Midsummer Watch parade dates back to 1498 and took place in the years between performances of the Chester Mystery Plays. The 1564 procesion is said to have included:

4 gyants, 1 unikorne, 1 dromodarye, 1 luce, 1 camell, 1 dragon, 6 hobbyhorses and 16 naked boys

The parades were continued until the late 17th century and revived in 1995 as a major event in the city calendar.

Guitarist Andy Martin performing in Eastgate Street, Chester. Andy is frequently to be foumd playing in and around the rows.

Ed Alleyne-Johnson is a frequent visitor to the streets of Chester. He is most often found in Eastgate Street where this set of photographs were taken. He first came to prominance in the early 1980's when as a student in Oxford he played bass in local bands and developed his unique electric violin and digital delay.  The violin is his own consttruction, sporting 5 rather than the usual 4 strings. Combining the pitches of the violin and viola to allow the building of a range of layers as the loops build into what can be a moving and complete experience.

The Silver Man is the stage name of Paul Silver a talented performer who's acts include, living statue, mime, juggling, stilt walking, trapeze and fire performance. Professionally trained he has performed throughout Europe. His performance at Chester's Cross on April 8th gave the opportunity for an interesting set of photographs. Performing as a living statue with crystal manipulation. His expressive face and graceful poses being a joy to record.

Chester city centre was awash with street performers on Thursday 8th April. The sun not only brought the shoppers and tourists it brought street performers that were at one point cueing to use the most advantageous pitches. Malcolm and John plying their traditional Jazz, Craig Owen and pianist playing classical favourites on violin. Jake Sanson "The Busker with the Red Guitar" and  Paul Silver "The Silver Man" living statue on his dais at The Cross.

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Bridge Street in Chester gets back to normal with the removal of the scaffolding that has supported the emergency repair work to number 15 Bridge Street over the last few weeks. The cracks that were evident on the wall above the rows gone with new decoration.

Work continues on stabilising the front brick work of the building. The roadway beneath is still closed to traffic and pedestrians. Which means that walking down Bridge Street requires mounting the steps onto the row on the western side of the street. As you will see in these pictures the wall is being secured by the insertion of large steel girders.

Tuesday 16th February saw the annual Chester cheese Rolling race. Held on Eastgate because of the ongoing problems in Bridge Street.  This years winners were the team from The Cheese Shop in Northgate Street who fought off fearce competition from the Fire Service team. The cheese rolling takes place as a prelude to Chesters Food, Dink and Lifestyle festival on 3rd-5th of April.

The road access along Bridge Street and along the eastern row level has been interrupted because of an unsafe building. Number 15 Bridge Street, Chester, occupied on the street level by Sayers, bakers and on the row level by Panasonic has been found to be structurally unsafe. The property of Grosvenor Estates the building was built in 1861. After a survey of the building on the 9^th February a supporting beam on the second floor level was found to be rotten. The building was evacuated. These photographs show the closing of the street whilst scaffolding is erected and emergency repairs can be made to the building to make it safe for the public.

Another collection of photographs of street performers in Chester. A colourful addition to Chester's streets the faces seem to come and go. Some travelling around the country some coming in from nearby and some local talent. There are two more pictures here of Craig Owen. This time only accompanied by his keyboard player. A frequent visitor to Chester during 2009. There is also a picture of Ed Alleyne-Johnson, more to follow, who can be found most Saturdays on Eastgate Street performing with his electric violin.

After much of the east coast of Britain, the penines and Scotland had suffered snow before and during Christmas. Chester, apart from a brief dusting just before Christmas appeared to avoid the great down pourings. Until Tuesday the 5th of January when a steady downfall ciovered most of the city with about 4-5 inches. Still not as significant as the rest of the country but pretty non the less. Here are few pictures of a snowy Chester.

Crowds flocked to Chester City Centre straight after Christmas day to hunt out bargains.

Here are a set of photos of Dave Hum busking at The Cross, Chester today. Using a five string banjo to play Celtic and Bluegrass music. He has been busking for over 20 years. He won Radio 2's International busking award in 1996. He is from Salisbury and can also be seen, mostly around Dorset, but sometimes further afield and at Folk festivals with the band The Huckleberries.

Not only is there a plethora of "to let" signs and empty shops on the high street of our towns. But sale signage appears to be getting brasher. Chester has below the national average of empty retail premises and the authorities have been quite protective of the visual apperance of the Rows in the city. But I thought this development was quite striking. Two adjacent shops competeing for the attention of the bargain hunting public.

Every Sunday throughout August in Watergate Street, Chester a series of street art performances organised by Chester Performs. There is singing, music, storytelling. performance art and tumbling along the street and rows. The street itself is decorated with life size paper chains and installations. Here are some photographs of Roaming the Rows Chester.