Chester

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.

More Here:

• 15 Bridge Street, Chester
• Bridge Street reopened

More here:

• 15 Bridge Street, Chester
• Bridge Street reopened

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.

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• Chester Food, Drink and Lifestyle Fetival

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.

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more here:

• Stabilising 15 Bridge Street
• Bridge Street reopened

more here:

• Stabilising 15 Bridge Street
• Bridge Street reopened

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 butpretty non the less. Here are few pictures of a snowy Chester.

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see also

• Chester in the Snow 2

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.

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Link:

• Dave Hum

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.