Chester pulses with living history: the Roman city walls, the medieval Rows and the landmark Eastgate Clock, the latter celebrating its Victorian heyday. It’s easy to wander the four main streets randomly on foot but a fresh way to tour the city is through the prism of its food heritage, revealing stories that span its 2,000-year history.
After all, the Romans first harnessed Cheshire salt mining and dairy farming to produce Cheshire cheese some 2,000 years ago, the cheese later referenced in the Domesday Book and a favourite at the court of Elizabeth I. The Rows, meanwhile, were arranged in trade guilds, leading to popular names such as Bakers’ Row and Buttershop Row, and some of the city’s historic pubs have been serving customers since the Middle Ages. The Bluebell, for example, is Chester’s longest-serving hostelry, welcoming travellers since 1494, while The Boot Inn dates to the English Civil War when Chester backed the ill-fated king, Charles I.
This month, as we celebrate Cheshire Day and the county’s long food history, Chester’s dining scene serves up more international influences, alongside modern-British staples. Taking a food tour, then, helps to uncover new tasty titbits, while drawing on Chester’s rich food past. ‘Food is a great leveller – a great way for both visitors and locals alike to discover hidden-gem places to eat,’ says Chester on a Plate tour leader Steph Bath. ‘I wanted the tour to showcase our vibrant independents and highlight Cheshire’s great local produce.’
WALLS WALK
Start exploring from the tour-hub Visitor Information Centre on Town Hall Square. The Victorian Gothic Town Hall building, a symbol of Victorian Chester, looks across to Chester Cathedral, the former Benedictine monastery, where the monks lived on a diet of self-sufficient vegetarian food and eight sessions of daily prayer.
You still eat in the cathedral’s refectory, now Café 1092, where Edward I and Richard II once dined. Today’s meals, however, are no longer taken in silence as one of the brothers reads from the scriptures from an elevated pulpit above the room. Heading along St Werburgh Street, the black-and-white buildings transformed by the Chester architect John Douglas of Eastgate Clock fame, join the city walls near the modernist cathedral bell tower and walk towards the Eastgate Clock.
Just beyond it, high above Eastgate Street, Huxley’s is a café-bar housed in a historic building with elevated city views from its porthole window. The current owner, Neil Chesters, traces his family history of freemen in Chester back to 1509, and today runs the Chester Beer Company, a craft-ale microbrewery. Try the darker Watergate Porter among its other beers. After a pitstop to wet the whistle, walk on along the city walls, crossing the Newgate with views across to the Roman amphitheatre. This was the heart of the entertainment for the Roman fortress of Deva, the city’s original name. During 400-odd years of Roman occupation, spectators in the amphitheatre would have ordered in an early version of Deliveroo fast food during the games
Exhibits in the Grosvenor Museum, in Grosvenor Street, testify to the amphitheatre as a city’s former social hub. A new exhibition launching this spring helps to bring the amphitheatre to life.
MAKE A DAY OF IT
DRINK AT...
The Greenhouse
Drinks, small plates and street food with an Italian twist are on the menu at this friendly bar in Rufus Court (closed Mondays). greenhousechester.co.uk
EAT IN…
New Chester Market
All-day street food, drinks, live music and events in a family- and dog-friendly space at the heart of the community (open Tuesday– Sunday). newchester.market
CHECK OUT…
The exhibition
Chester Amphitheatre, based on evidence from the excavations, runs at the Grosvenor Museum until July 12. grosvenormuseum.westcheshiremuseums.co.uk
MORE FROM...
Chester on a Plate food tour costs £85pp with a new, self-guided tour to launch for spring 2026. chesteronaplatetours.co.uk
David Atkinson is a freelance writer and Green Badge tourist guide to Cheshire and North Wales. His latest book is A Dark History of Chester (Amberley). davidatkinson.tours
MARKET VALUES
Complete the walking tour by heading back along Northgate Street towards Town Hall Square. Just before Storyhouse, head left through the archway of Coachworks Arcade to Exchange Square and New Chester Market.
The building, part of the Northgate Project to rejuvenate the northern part of the city, sits on the site of the former Roman barracks of the Valeria Victrix and has welcomed more than seven million visitors since opening in November 2022.
The market celebrates the latest chapter of Chester’s food story with a mix of global street food and local flavours, including Cheshire’s Sam Joseph Handmade Chocolates.
Finish the tour, however, with a modern fusion of flavours at Pastry Pédaleur, a former Food Producer of the Year winner at the Cheshire Life Food & Drink Awards. ‘It wasn’t until I moved to Cheshire that I discovered its proud history of local flavours,’ says owner and pastry chef Stephanie Peters. ‘I enjoy experimenting with local flavours as part of my hand-crafted, gourmet pastries.’
Indeed, the quintessential way to round off a Chester food-heritage odyssey is by tucking into a slab of creamy Cheshire-inspired cheesecake, a bespoke dessert for the tour, combining cloth-bound cheese from Bournes of Malpas and Cheshire Cat pale ale. Pair it with a flat white from next door coffee shop Bean & Cole. It’s a fitting way to finish, combining Cheshire’s traditional flavours with a contemporary twist. Bon appétit..
Having followed the city walls south towards the river, take the section that runs parallel to The Groves on the banks of the river. Exit the walls by the Bridgegate, with Old Dee Bridge leading to the suburb of Handbridge beyond. Turning right leads onto Lower Bridge Street, home to some of the oldest pubs in Chester – and some of the city’s favourite ghost stories. The Brewery Tap, one of two Chester outlets for Cheshire’s Spitting Feathers Brewery, combines a foodie pit-stop with a stunning heritage setting. The food is served in a high-ceilinged Jacobean dining hall and accompanied by local craft ales. The hidden doorways, still set high into the walls in the main room, indicate where serving staff would have emerged to fill up the glasses of thirsty guests, while the building itself was the former Gamul House – the Gamul family having hosted King Charles I on the eve of the Battle of Rowton Moor in 1645.
Heading onwards, walk straight up Bridge Street towards The Cross, where the four main streets of the city meet. The frontages of the black-and-white Rows buildings at the Cross are a symbol of Chester’s Victorian makeover, featuring on the 7p postage stamps for the European Architectural Heritage Year in 1975, alongside locations in Edinburgh and London. From here, take a left onto Watergate Street, leading down towards Chester’s Roodee racecourse, dating from 1539, and look for the building on the left with a façade marked with the words, ‘God’s providence is mine inheritance.’ God’s Providence House, as it is known, is now home to the Providence Gin bar. Sip the house Providence London Dry, or a flavoured gin from one of the Cheshire distilleries, while considering the old Chester folk tale about the building as home to the only family to survive the plague – hence the slogan on the front of the building.
This article was originally published in Cheshire Life. If you enjoyed this content, consider subscribing to Cheshire Life for more insightful articles, in-depth features, and exclusive content. Simply visit our website at https://www.greatbritishlife.co.uk/magazines/cheshire/ to subscribe today!
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