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 At present we have very few pictures of Northgate, and this photograph that Louise had taken of one of her paintings is not Northgate itself, but the King Charles Tower a little further along the city wall at its north east corner. Built in Mediaeval times and earlier known as the Newton Tower from the local suburb, it took its popular name from King Charles I's presence there in 1645 when his army was defeated at nearby Rowton Moor and the tower itself was mauled. It was offered subsequently as a guild meeting house on condition that they restored it. This work added a stone with a carved phoenix from the guild's emblem, so it also became known as the Phoenix Tower. Louise's painting is from the 1870s, prior to the tower's next restoration in the 1880s, and shows it from the canal built along the wall in 1772. The wall curves away leftwards past the canal boat and then out of view (towards Northgate itself), and while the works on the right might suggest the remains of a bridge, they have no connection with the wall. |
 The effect of
walling a city and putting gates into its four main faces is to encourage four main streets to develop
(or existing ones be reinforced) from gate to centre, and that is exactly what happened in Chester. And
they meet not quite squarely at the Cross by St Peter's Church. The northern route is Northgate Street,
and the picture here (apparently titled City Street, but not necessarily given the name by Louise) was kindly provided by Peter Cleaver. The scene - thought to have been painted around 1880-90 - is from near the Northgate bridge over the canal looking
down Northgate Street toward the Town Hall and the city centre. |
 Visible names on
the left of the painting are Morton(s) on the dark sign, and Smith just beyond it. The Bluebell Inn (M.Hodgson?)
on the right is two medieval buildings merged into one and extended, and known as Lorimer's Row. Building the
upper floor out over the pavement is fairly common in Chester but this example is unique in having a shop on
the front face of the passage. It still exists as no.65 Northgate Street.Town Hall Square, Chester The Town Hall was built in late 13th century Gothic style in 1865-9, during Louise's early period of residence in Chester. But with her love of the old and the grand, she may not have chosen to sketch the building while it was under construction - except, perhaps, for herself. [Grosvenor Museum collection, large print available, included in Picturesque Chester.] Surprisingly, we've seen no paintings of the nearby Chester Cathedral as yet, and indeed have no other paintings to illustrate Northgate Street itself until we reach the Cross - though we do pass the upper end of St. Werburgh Street, which is covered on our East-West page, and we recently got an answer to a long-standing query. |
Although the title ascribed to this view is Lower Bridge Street, it matches no other buildings in her paintings for that area,
and the street is very level whereas those in the Lower Bridge Street area tend to slope. As Louise omitted titles
from some of her paintings, there are examples of sellers titling by guesswork (or even to raise the price, perhaps),
and we think this has happened here.We are in a street with Rows, approaching a tee or staggered junction with another street that has Rows, and this immediately suggested the southern end of Northgate Street with Eastgate Street running across the bottom to the Cross, just out of sight to the right. The Roman-style building just left of centre is therefore the City Club in Northgate Street, and though its tower is invisible, the building beyond it is St. Peter's Church at the Cross. Alex Malthouse, a research historian currently studying Northgate Street's Inns and Taverns for the period 1775-1900 has kindly confirmed our identification, and adds that the businesses on the right were in buildings sometimes called 'Shoemaker Row'. Phillipson & Golder (of Eastgate Street) produced commercial trade directories of Chester, and their 1870 and 1876/7 directories both list T.F Denson as a tailor/draper at no.6 Northgate Street Row West. To the right, the 1870 directory has John Dodd as the proprietor of a wholesale confectioners in Northgate Street Row, without offering a shop number - but the 1876-77 directory is more positive and gives a Mrs. Dodds, wholesale confectioners, no.7 Northgate Street Row. The business of Taylor & Willcock is more of a problem as it isn't listed in either directory. This implies a period outside the 1870-6 bracket, and from the clothes worn we'd suggest it was later. But as Northgate Street had no trams, and Louise has suppressed the street lighting from her picture, we don't get any hints from those. Comments welcome! |
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| Harry Drummond, March 2007. |
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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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