We're now back at the crossroads Looking towards Handbridge, Chester, with Lower Bridge Street coming over our right shoulder, disappearing under the city wall through the 1788-rebuilt Bridgegate we can see ahead, on past the towering Dee Mills, and then out of sight across the River Dee towards Handbridge and Wales. To the right of our view is Shipgate Street, leading to a second gate that once went through the wall close by, but was demolished in 1831. It also leads to St. Mary's Hill and the church we saw from Duke Street.
The painting was auctioned by Sotheby's in June 2003; the sale price is unknown to us, but 10-15,000 pounds was anticipated. We don't have a date of painting and there are no obvious triggers in the scene to suggest one. Visitors' views are welcome on this.
 
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The two principal buildings seen in the crossroads painting are the Old Edgar (on the corner) and the Bear and Billet, and Louise did (at least) two more studies of the buildings, as we see here. This one (left) is the Old Edgar, Lower Bridge Street which had once been an inn (hence its appearance), but was later converted into two houses. It still bears the inn's name, which arises from a local tradition of King Edgar of England visiting Chester in 973, and requiring eight other kings to row him across the River Dee in demonstration of their submission to him. The painting on the building wall reprises the event, but we don't have a date for Louise's painting..
Almost the last building before the Bridgegate is the Bear and Billet Inn (right) (with George Spicer sharing the building for his own business). The road is visibly steep at this point. Whereas the Old Edgar probably dates from the late 16th century (but much restored since), the Bear and Billet dates more positively from 1664, when it was built as a town house for the family that had a half-share in the Bridgegate tolls. The warehouse doors in the gable are for a hoist to store grain there. Looking at all that glass, one wonders how the family felt about the Window Tax brought in just a few years later (1696) under King William III, and not repealed until Louise was commencing her adult career. No doubt the gate tolls got a little heavier! The painting itself is The Bear and Billet, Lower Bridge Street, but the date is unknown.
These two paintings have a very similar feel to them - the painting style, the people, the state of the street, etc. - and may even have been sketched on the same day. There are odd little differences such as the sign above the door of the red-brick building sandwiched between the principal subjects, but this could have been accidental or deliberate omission. More interesting is the chimney stack that went missing from the same building, but even that isn't true evidence for a different date, because comparison between the two paintings will show that a whole column of windows is missing in the Bear picture! Paintings provide even less reliable history than some photographs!
[Both from the Grosvenor Museum collection and included in Picturesque Chester. Small prints available.]
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Had you gone through the Bridgegate, across the Old Dee Bridge, turned west alongside the river and then looked back to the north, you would have had something like this view of Chester Castle from the River Dee - or to put it less romantically, the county jail serving out its twilight years (it closed in 1884 and soon after became the first county hall). The church is St. Mary's-on-the-Hill - previously seen from Duke Street and reached via Shipgate Street from the crossroads near the bottom of Lower Bridge Street. The church tower (restored in 1861-2) is the only obvious date marker, but it was very likely that the picture was painted after that date anyway. Otherwise we have no date for the painting. [Grosvenor Museum collection and included in Picturesque Chester.]
Many of the images on these pages appear with the co-operation and courtesy of
the Grosvenor Museum, Chester
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Harry Drummond, March 2007. |
Please take note: we claim no art expertise, and in no way do we offer provenance for any paintings. What you see here was compiled out of interest in Louise Rayner's paintings and those by her family, but is based on sometimes very fragmentary evidence. As such, it is inevitable that there will be errors, though we naturally hope to reduce these over time.
We would gratefully receive any information or corrections that will help us to fill the gaps and resolve unproved links - for example confirmation of dates of birth, death, etc., and details of other addresses the family lived at (and roughly when). Images of any of the family's paintings would also be very welcome. Thank you!
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Copyright © 2007 DudleyMall.
Chester (front page)
Foregate to The Cross
Watergate Street
Chester Northgate
Bridge Street
Email DudleyMall at: dudleymall@dudleymall.co.uk Date reviewed: March 2007
DudleyMall, 62 Gervase Drive, Dudley, West Midlands DY1 4AT
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From the paintings we presently have to hand, Lower Bridge Street seems to have been one of Louise Rayner's favourite stamping grounds. Above, we look southwards down Lower Bridge Street from the Falcon Cocoa House, situated where Bridge Street became Lower Bridge Street. Built in 1626, it became the Falcon Inn from 1778-1878, and was then transformed into a temperance cocoa house - thus giving us an earliest date for Louise's painting. The building with the two sweeping staircases is Bridge House, built for the Attorney-General of Cheshire in the early 18th century.
In the middle of the street on a small box (too early for the "soap box" label to have been coined!) we see a man either declaiming his view of the world or - just possibly - serving as a barker for one of the market stalls behind him. This is one of the earlier paintings, judging by the pavements, and rich with detail. The title of the painting is Market Day Chester. In June 2007 it passed through a Sothebys auction, selling for £15,000.
This picture, above, is officially Lower Bridge Street, looking south, but it could have been called Old Coach Row (unless Louise had already given that name to another painting), for this section of the street on the east side between St Olave's Church and Duke Street was known by that name. The steps at right show that we are right by Gamul House, but the much poorer quality of the paving in this scene indicates an earlier date (possibly
much earlier) than the picture of Gamul House above. What is also interesting is that Louise is criticised for allowing her later work to lose freshness and vitality and simply become derivative of her earlier paintings. But here it is the older painting that looks simplified and somewhat dashed-off, while the Gamul House view is crisp with detail and human observation (the boy with the iron hoop, for example). One explanation of this inconsistency is that we may be looking at a later copy of the original painting (and as she had probably sold the original, she could have been working from a study rather than the final version).
