Chester

Chester is the only city in England where the Roman street grid remains virtually unchanged, and where the medieval Rows — two-tiered shopping galleries — still function as commercial arcades. Founded in the 70s AD as the Roman fortress Deva Victrix, Chester became one of the most important military bases in the western empire. Legio XX Valeria Victrix was stationed here for over three centuries, leaving behind an amphitheatre, bathhouses and fragments of fortress walls that can still be touched today.

After the Roman withdrawal the city fell into decline, but by the 10th century it had revived as a flourishing Mercian trading hub dealing with Wales, Ireland and the Wirral peninsula. William the Conqueror made Chester the centre of a palatinate earldom, virtually independent of royal government. The city walls, preserved in their entire two-mile circuit, were built in the Middle Ages to protect merchants from Welsh and Scottish raids. In 1541 Chester was granted city status and its own cathedral, which grew from the Benedictine abbey of St Werburgh.

Today Chester is a living open-air museum, where black-and-white timber-framed houses of the 17th century stand alongside modern boutiques. The Eastgate Clock, presented by Queen Victoria in 1897, still strikes every hour, and visitors can walk the full circuit of the ancient walls — a privilege shared by only a handful of British cities.