Chester Rows

Chester Rows consist of covered walkways at the first floor behind which are entrances to shops and other premises. At street level is another set of shops and other premises, many of which are entered by going down a few steps. The Rows, found in each of the four main streets of the city of Chester, Cheshire, England, are unique; nothing precisely similar exists anywhere else in the world.

Dating from the medieval era, the Rows may have been built on top of rubble remaining from the ruins of Roman buildings, but their origin is still subject to speculation. In some places the continuity of the Rows has been blocked by enclosure or by new buildings, but in others modern buildings have retained the Rows in their designs. Undercrofts or "crypts" were constructed beneath the buildings in the Rows. The undercrofts were in stone while most of the buildings in the Rows were in timber.

Today about 20 of the stone undercrofts still exist, but at the level of the Rows very little medieval fabric remains. Many of the buildings containing portions of the Rows are listed and some are recorded in the English Heritage Archive. The premises on the street and Row levels are used for a variety of purposes; most are shops, but there are also offices, restaurants, cafés, and meeting rooms. Chester Rows are one of the city's main tourist attractions.

Chester (district)

Chester was a non-metropolitan local government district of Cheshire, England, with the status of a city and a borough.

Apart from Chester itself, which was the principal settlement, the district covered a large rural area. Other settlements included Malpas and Tarvin.

Creation

The district was formed on 1 April 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, by the merger of the existing city and county borough of Chester with the Chester Rural District and Tarvin Rural District. The district council used the name Chester City Council.

City council

Membership and wards

The first council had 62 members and was elected as a shadow authority (known as Chester District Council) on 7 June 1973. The council came into its powers on 1 April 1974, on which date a royal charter and letters patent came into force with the authority becoming Chester City Council and the chairman of the council having the title of mayor. An election of the whole council was held again in 1976.

The number of councillors was reduced to 60 at the next council election in 1979. Thereafter the city council elections were "by thirds": with 20 councillors retiring in three out of every four years. In the fourth year, elections to Cheshire County Council took place.

Chester (Homeville, Virginia)

Chester is a historic home located near Homeville, Sussex County, Virginia. It was built in 1773, and is a two-story, three bay, frame dwelling with side gable roof. It features two exterior chimney stacks, joined on both the first and second floor levels by pent closets. Attached to the main section is a two-story wing with an exterior chimney and a shallow gable roof added in the 1820s.

It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970.

References

Chester Transportation Center

The Chester Transportation Center is a SEPTA bus and train station in Chester, Pennsylvania. The outside portion of the ground level serves SEPTA City Transit Division Route 37, and Suburban Transit Division Routes 109, 113, 114, 117, 118, and 119.

Above the building of the transportation center is the train station. The tracks run over the building. The station is served by the Wilmington/Newark Line. The line offers southbound service to Wilmington and Newark, Delaware and northbound service to Philadelphia. This station is located at 6th and Welsh Streets, Chester, PA 19013.

History

Chester station was built by the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1903. In the 1940s lots of NY-Washington trains stopped there; in 1970 one Philadelphia-Washington train stopped, and in 1978-83 Amtrak's Chesapeake stopped both ways between Philadelphia and Washington. PRR/PC/Conrail local trains to Marcus Hook/Wilmington/Newark continued until SEPTA took them over in 1983.

Stairway to the rail platforms