Chester has so many Tudor buildings that wandering its streets feels like you’re surveying a giant dismembered zebra. Of course, you also have the ancient city walls, a 1000-year-old cathedral and plenty of Roman ruins too. It’s a city teeming with history. Even the pavements are overrun with school children chanting Latin and thwacking cardboard shields with foam weapons much to the distress of the mild-mannered day-trippers flitting between boutiques. All-in-all, it’s not the place you’d expect to find brutalist architecture. I was surprised and delighted with what I discovered.
As is often the case, when I tried to research the architects behind these impressive structures, all Google offered were local newspaper articles on Chester’s most despised building or blogs by Tudor-tub-thumpers pouring scorn on this most misunderstood and maligned branch of modernist architecture. So, please forgive the information gaps and instead enjoy the absence of words like eyesore and monstrosity.
Here’s my rundown of some of Chester’s brutalist architecture and how to find it.
Pepper Street Car Park
Architect unknown – Google Map
Pepper Street car park has it all: a gorgeous angular brutalist staircase, an imposing lift shaft featuring some of the deepest bush-hammered ridges I’ve ever seen, and multiple facades of delightfully uniform concrete panels It’s even got that rarest of beasts: a lion, sitting proudly at its apex.
The lion’s story is worth telling. The sculpture significantly pre-dates the multi-storey car park, having enjoyed a similar elevation on a tower of the nineteenth-century Lion’s Brewery (later Bent’s Brewery) – that previously existed on Pepper Street.
During the brewery’s demolition in the late sixties, the lion was relocated to the town clerk’s garden in Curzon Park. When the car park was finally completed in 1971 by the team from John Laing Construction, the lion was lowered onto its lofty spot atop the lift shaft – the king of a new concrete jungle. Despite much effort on my part, I was unable to get a decent shot of the lion- something something mane objective something something loss of pride.
John S Turner / Chester’s Lion / CC BY-SA 2.0
You can enter the Pepper Street car park complex from Chester’s famous ancient city walls, an enjoyable transition from sandstone centuries-trod by merchants and merry men to the concrete concourse trudged by city slickers back from a shopping trip and slap up meal.
But when it comes to contrasts, it is the juxtaposition of the classic Tudor facade of its aged neighbour and the grid of concrete panels that is the real money shot.
NEWGATE ST. Carpark and concourse
Google Map for Terrace Bar (the best location)
Across the road from Pepper Street is Newgate Steet and another brutalist car park and concourse with some striking angles to enjoy. Unfortunately, I was unable to take any shots of the staircase due to an overzealous security guard. Sitting on a plastic chair in the concrete gloom, this salamander-like figure, snout in a packet of cheese and onion, refused to let me take any photographs without permission from the shopping centre.
Despite my protests, he was steadfast. As I looked at him in disbelief, a drip of water fell from the decaying concrete and rolled down his cheek. The guy didn’t even blink. Just a reminder folks, you don’t need permission to photograph a building or structure if you’re on public property.
55-61 Watergate Street
On Watergate Street, nestled among one of Chester’s famous historical raised walkways known as rows, you’ll find four stunning brutalist apartments. The symmetry, the uniformity, the neatness of the neat proportions all make for a highly pleasing example of brutalist architecture.
Architects Bradshaw, Rowse, and Harker Associates of Liverpool designed these brutalist flats in the nineteen-sixties. It is quite the achievement to so confidently and successfully embed these dwellings amidst the period properties.
The quality of the shuttering is something to note, with beautiful imprints of the original timber. You can sneak round the back for an opportunity to get closer to these details.
GATEWAY Theatre, FoRUM SHOPPING CENTRE & Hamilton house
In the Northgate area of the city, significant redevelopment is underway. In recent years, a brand-spanking new multi-storey car park and welcoming market have opened along with a variety of shopping outlets and eateries. To make way for these ventures, buildings have been demolished with many more to meet the same fate under phase two of the Northgate Development.
One building due to meet the wrecking ball is the Forum shopping centre and former Gateway Theatre. It’s a pattern that has been repeated throughout history on this site with Roman structures making way for Chester’s market in the twelfth century, which then made way for the shopping centre in the 1960s and soon the next chapter will be written.
Although I’ve missed the opportunity to enjoy the impressive brutalist architecture of the area up close, I was able to glimpse aspects of its former glory.
I am most sad to have missed out on the Gateway Theatre (for a brief period The Forum Studio Theatre) – a handsome brutalist structure designed by architect Martin Graden of Michael Lyell Associates.
Opened in November 1968, the Gateway Theatre is where David Suchet made his stage debut in 1969 and many more heavyweights have performed over the decades. The building rises from the concrete with a protrusion like the top jaw of a whale breaching the concrete concourse: it is a pleasingly bold architectural feature, cutting dramatic angles that unfortunately I could not capture. The theatre has been closed since Covid and its demolition is imminent.
Enjoy a better image of the theatre here.
Looking down on the roof of the Forum shopping centre from the new car park, you can see a field of concrete pyramids and ventilation ducts along with the heft of Hamilton House in the distance – a view that will soon no longer exist.
I explored the car parks and under streets of the area, peering over walls and peeking between security fences to get snapshots of pleasing details like this staircase:
Not far away is the derelict council-owned office block Hamilton House that had a brief period as a homeless crisis centre, evidence of Chester’s less affluent side. It has a dramatic facade of windows but not too much else of note.
‘Salmon Leap’ Flats
Google Maps
Designed by Liverpool architects Gilling Dod and Partners, the so-called Salmon Leap flats were completed in 1976. This well-proportioned development has been popular amongst footballers with Jan Molby and Pat Nevin both living there at some point.
Each unit provides a beautiful view across Chester Weir from the Handbridge area. One former resident on Reddit described the noise from the weir:
“It’s constant and you get used to it very quickly. But at high tide, when it stops for an hour or so, it goes spooky quiet.”
I would argue that the view back across the River Dee is equally enjoyable despite the Chester Chronicle describing them as Chester’s ugliest buildings in 2009.
Northgate Leisure Centre / Arena
Not strictly Brutalism, but this red brick beast is a lot of fun, from a lot of angles. Built in 1977 and designed by architects Building Design Partnership, it retains many of the original hard landscaped features – the concrete flower planters, the bollards – and, despite its size, is elegant and playful.
References and further reading:
If you enjoyed this read my guide to Brutalist Bristol or read my essay on Brutalism and Music.
Many thanks to the excellent Modern Mooch’s walk around Chester post.
All images copyright © Tom Spooner 2024 – except Salmon Leap advertisement and where stated.
