Was it a good year for you ? For the city of Chester I’m saying yes it was, with a continuing cultural renaissance including lots of art and new additions for people to fall out over. We said goodbye to some much loved businesses but many new ones emerged. As usual I’ll be looking on the bright side of life as much as possible. Many of the recollections are personal so if I missed your favourite event or happening please don’t be offended. We all have our own version of Chester but I’m the only one obsessed enough to write a review of the year. Thanks for reading!

January saw the awful changes implemented by Stagecoach buses to the often forgotten about 51/53 services. The bizarre Frankenstein bodge job saw Upton passengers being diverted through Kingsway on the outbound route, while Kingsway residents had to travel all the way through Upton on the way home. Several bus stops lost their service altogether. I was glad to take part in the campaign, with bus users frequently overlooked in a car obsessed society. Drivers may demand free parking but my buses aren’t free so why should it be so? City leaders in tandem with the privatised bus companies need to make the late night ( i.e after 7pm in some areas!) accessible for all.

New MP Sam Dixon was kind enough to mention the Chester in Lego display in her maiden speech. Sadly when the speech, which detailed “champions of Chester” was reported by Chester Standard they omitted all reference, for some unknown reason. Thankfully our friends at Cheshire Live felt it was a newsworthy story, in advance of the Lego finally being installed in the New Market in Feb. Notably Ms Dixon will be the last ever MP for City of Chester following the boundary commissions baffling decision to split us into Chester North and South along the river, lumped in with various separate rural areas.

Gaia at Chester Cathedral was an early cultural highlight. It’s massive spinning globe art installation encouraging us to reflect on the state of our world and continuing the Cathedral’s showcasing of beautiful art. Elsewhere fears of falling masonry at St Peter’s Church at the Cross led to an emergency closure of Northgate street. Happily the disruption to business and residents was resolved after 3 weeks and life resumed.

In March I reflected on 10 years of Shitchester by joining the Chester BID’s Invest Chester campaign. I revealed my not so secret identity to express my belief in my city , a million miles away from the time I was accused of “driving away investment” by the Leader of the Council. Similarly, positive press coverage of the new Lego display thanks to a freelance submission to the Daily Mail continued the Spring good vibes. Even the Hollyoaks team returned to film in the city: bringing the good times back with a Town Hall wedding, as well as some absolutely awful dialogue.

An incident in Turtle Bay at the end of March saw three contractors being injured and the adjoining Market closed for over 2 weeks for repairs. The Market’s heritage corner reopened in November and Turtle Bay is now scheduled to open in 2024. Despite this upheaval, the Market won numerous awards in its first year, even if a section of the community still choose to hate it maintaining the “food hall” point of view – new traders this year included a deli, crystal shop, the Zoo’s first retail unit outside Upton, a pop up antique seller, an Oriental supermarket and artisan gift shop Partly. Sadly Daily Wares, Custom Gift Studio and Just Footprints all left the Market.

May saw the Council elections with Labour taking 39 of 70 seats on a turnout of just 36%. Interest seemed minimal locally despite vocal hatred of the status quo from the same people posting every day how the council is killing the city. Whilst some will note that turnout in local elections is always lower than in General ones, the lack of interest seemed to reflect the current fractured nature of politics. Even the Chester Standard and Cheshire Live were unable to attend the count in person at the Ellesmere Port Sports Village- with previous elections receiving live blogs and minute by minute coverage. Do we need more in depth coverage of local events? If there was more would people read it or would they stick to TikTok??

Chester Visual Arts bought “How did we get here? / Where do we go now?’ by acclaimed British photographer and visual artist Simon Roberts to the old H&M in the Grosvenor Shopping Centre. The type of exhibition that would cost £10 to visit in Manchester or Liverpool, with photos offering moving and thought provoking portraits of modern Britain, it deserved a lot more media attention than it got.

July was a busy month with Tick Tick Boom at St Mary’s Creative space providing my cultural highlight of the year. The debut show from Disley Theatrical Productions, the superbly talented cast of 3 transported the audience back to 1990s New York for their version of Jonathan Larson’s musical. Featuring a much larger cast, Chester Mystery Plays returned with a traditional, but visceral and interpretations of the well known Bible tales. Featuring an innovative new seating arrangement, the plays were a big contrast to the 2018 plays.

The Deva Roman experience relaunched with a new actor led attraction, combining humour, historical facts and atmosphere, the update offered another quality paid attraction for visitors and locals. Thanks to operators BIG Heritage who were also very kind to sponsor the building of new Roman elements in the Lego display.

Another July event saw the return of the popular dinosaurs who paraded the city streets one sunny weekend. Taking place concurrently was an event bringing the rows to life, with costumed actors playing roles from the city’s past. The event was created by Chester Young Producers; a group of Chester teenagers supported by The Grosvenor Museum. A simple idea done very well , a servant of Thomas Cowper, the 17th century mayor of Chester provided an insight into Civil War life, and outside her shop a reborn Susanna Brown chatted whilst dinosaurs roamed the streets. Bring this event back please!

Of course all of this was topped by Youtube Star Danny of Rate My Takeaway setting his table up in the Market to visit Nicebites. “This is where they film Hollyoaks!” he said. Both Nicebites and the later visited Death by Tacos received 10/10.

August slipped away into a moment in time with the Watergate Street festival, a triumphant return to the Storyhouse stage for Tip Top Productions with The Sound of Music, as well as the expansion of The Scented Garden into a second unit.

September saw the covers taken off the old Browns building- leading to hopes of some news about a use for the building which closed in May 2021. Nothing was forthcoming apart from fixtures and fittings being removed, with silence from the owners Martin’s Property Group. They had previously announced in November 2022 that they were planning to breathe “new life” into the building. Fingers crossed for the new year.

The closure of Wilko was announced- leaving a big hole in the high street, but luckily this was partially filled by a new and expanded Pound Land which opened later in the year.

City wide art trail Chester contemporary launched at the Town Hall and ran until December. Featuring a mix of art installations , the contentious How to Work Better attracted the most vocal commentary. The list of 10 points on the side of the old Forum building provoked strong reactions with equal portions of love and hate. The text was taken from a sign found in a factory in Thailand. Whilst some saw it as ironic, others patronising or insulting, the internationally known installation certainly added prestige to the event and felt well located within the city. “Accept change as inevitable” says one point on the wall facing the new Exchange Square with the fading past Forum and Market behind.

Other highlights in otherwise abandoned spaces included No Tracksuits, No Trainers by Hannah Perry in the old market loading bay, and Fiona Banner’s surreal Disarm in the old Top Shop. The overall winner went to Tim Foxon’s Contemporary Interventions with collectable macarena fridge magnets, misspelt Chester signs and the amazing mini clown bike. The bike captured the imagination of Cestrians and was the most accessible of all the artworks.

In October Taco Bell were forced into a climbdown one afternoon after proudly announcing that their new “Chester” branch was opening soon. A few people pointed out that Cheshire Oaks wasn’t actually part of Chester leading to a hasty rebrand.

November saw the long awaited opening of the 6 screen Picturehouse Cinema– another milestone in the Northgate development. First announced back in 2017 the opening was an expression of confidence in Chester and the return of multi screen cinema for the first time to the city centre in 16 years. A high class venue and excellent addition to the city which puts us on par with York for cinema provision.

December passed without incident, with the now familiar Christmas programme of events, parades, choirs and crowded festive markets. A live broadcast by Radio Merseyside from the Market was a positive showcase for the city, its people and the traders, providing a mood of pre Christmas celebration.

In 2023 Chester suffered the loss of many popular businesses, including : Meltdown. Lodge cafe in the park, The 2nd Floor, Mecca Bingo, Wilko, Boujee, Mountain Warehouse, Cups, Paperchase , the top floor of WHSmiths, Leonidas’ chocolates and Artichoke.

Newcomers included Picturehouse, The Henry Potts, Krum gelato, The Lock Vaults Six one six( pepper street) Scented garden 2, Oliver Bonas, Eye-mazy, Tesco Northgate street, Poundland , Magnet kitchens, The Leopard, Home Bargains, Oren art gallery, Chester Art (OH) foundation, Brewski, Papena, Butchers Salon , Four Monkeys, the new Glass Deva, Knoops, 200 degree coffee ,and at least 3 new jewellers, the return of Lily Vintage and others.

It was pleasing to see the units at the front of the Forum filled – with Barclay’s bank occupying the old McDonalds (closed since 2018) and Storyhouse taking over Boots for a new rehearsal/youth space- its a shame the empty and frozen in time Forum can still be viewed through the shutters.

What happened to GAME? Announced in March of this year, the “opening Spring” banner was quietly removed in the summer and no one seemed to notice or care.

This year I’ve been privileged to interview some Chester residents of note. I met long time target, popular busker Ed Alleyne Johnson in the reopened market in May with his partner Andrea. Newly elected city centre councillors Ben Walker and Katrina Kerr took part in a Q&A, and Storyhouse CEO , Annabel Turpin laid out her vision only 5 weeks into her role. I also met the chair of the Senior Blues Chris Courtenay Williams who spoke about his long association with the city and the football club. Platform for Life in Blacon informed me of their work promoting better mental health in the community, and I was also given a behind the scenes tour of the Crossroads Community Hub in Newton. Sadly an interview with a high ranking community leader was never published due to delay in over 2 months in the post being approved by the comms department of the unnamed organisation. One lesson learnt there.

Time rolls on and 2023 becomes another Chester memory. All the best to everyone in 2024: whether you live in a forward thinking heritage city, a dying ghost town ruined by students and hotels, or somewhere in between. Happy New Year.