Chester : Britain

Chester Travel Guide : Britain
Chester is the county town of Cheshire in the north-west of England, close to the border with Wales. It is one of the best-preserved walled cities in the country. It is situated north of the River Dee. It is the main settlement in the City of Chester local government district. The adjective associated with the city is Cestrian.
Culture of Chester
Shopping in Chester
The city is a popular shopping centre, with its unique ‘Rows’ or galleries (basically two levels of shops) which date from medieval times. The city is heavily populated by chain stores both in the centre and on retail parks to the west, and also features two indoor shopping centres, an indoor market and a department store, Browns of Chester, once known as ‘the Harrods of the North’. There are two main indoor shopping centres, The Mall Grosvenor and the Forum. The latter refers to the city’s Roman past, and is to be demolished in the Northgate Development to make way for new shopping streets, a new indoor market, a new library and a performing arts centre.
Arts & Sport of Chester
The city has two cinemas and a theatre, the Gateway Theatre, and in the summer the city hosts the annual Chester Music Festival and the Chester Mystery Plays, the latter of which dates from medieval times. Numerous pubs populate the city, some of which are medieval, as do wine bars at night, and Chester also has five nightclubs. The city also has a football team, Chester City F.C., who play in the Deva Stadium and a national basketball team, the Chester Jets, who play in the city’s Northgate Arena leisure centre. Also to the east side of the city are the UK’s largest zoological gardens, Chester Zoo.
Industry of Chester
The city’s main industries are retail, tourism and financial services. Chester’s main employer is MBNA Europe. There is also a large Shell oil refinery, and also a chemical factory, operated by ICI to the north of Chester near Ellesmere Port. To the west near the village of Hawarden there is an aviation factory, operated by BAE Systems (formerly British Aerospace) where the wings of the Airbus are manufactured, and there are food processing plants to the north and west.
Chester has its own university college, University College Chester, that is affiliated to the University of Liverpool.