Explore Chester

Chester Cathedral was the church of the Benedictine abbey of St Werburgh, founded in 1093, and has been the seat of the Bishop of Chester since 1541. The red sandstone building shows every main style of English medieval architecture from Norman to Perpendicular, and the former monastic buildings with the cloister stand on its north side.

The Eastgate Clock stands on top of the Eastgate, a sandstone gateway in Chester's city walls on the site of the eastern entrance to the Roman fortress of Deva. The three-arched gate dates from 1768; the clock, designed by John Douglas, was added in 1899 for Queen Victoria's diamond jubilee and has four faces under a copper cupola.

The Chester Rows are covered walkways at first-floor level along Chester's four main streets, with a second line of shops beneath them at street level. They date from the Middle Ages, and about 20 stone undercrofts survive below the mostly timber-framed buildings. Today the galleries hold shops, cafés and offices.

Chester Roman Amphitheatre is the excavated northern half of a stone amphitheatre built in the 1st century beside the Roman fortress of Deva Victrix. It was used for gladiator fights and other combat until around 350 and was rediscovered in 1929. English Heritage looks after the site; a path runs around the arena.

St John the Baptist's Church stands outside Chester's city walls on a cliff above the River Dee. Founded by the Anglo-Saxons in the late 7th century, it served as a cathedral in the 11th century. The present parish church, restored in the 19th century, keeps Norman work inside, and ruins of the larger medieval church stand at its east end.

Sick To Death is a museum of the history of medicine, focused on plagues and pandemics, inside the former St Michael's Church at the corner of Bridge Street and Pepper Street in Chester. It opened in May 2021 with funding from the Wellcome Trust and is run by Big Heritage. The church was largely rebuilt in 1849–50 but keeps a chancel roof of 1496.

The Grosvenor Museum in Chester opened in 1886 in a red-brick building by the architect Thomas Lockwood and takes its name from the Grosvenor family, the Dukes of Westminster. Its collections include Roman archaeology with a gallery of Roman tombstones, paintings, musical instruments and a Victorian parlour in the period house next door.

Chester's city walls form an almost complete circuit around the old city, with a walkway about 3 km long. The Romans began them around AD 70–80 for the fortress of Deva Victrix and rebuilt them in sandstone; after the Norman Conquest they were extended to the west and south, and after the Civil War they became a promenade.

Chester Zoo is a zoo in Upton-by-Chester, on the northern edge of Chester, opened in 1931 by George Mottershead and his family. It covers 51 hectares and is run by the North of England Zoological Society, a conservation charity founded in 1934. Its areas include Islands, with animals from Southeast Asia, and a Japanese garden.