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West of the Cross, we go into Watergate Street, and in Louise Rayner's picture below we're looking westwards along Watergate Row North.
As can be seen, the Rows provide a second business level, either for the same business at street level or for a totally
different enterprise. Modern shopping malls are not quite as innovative as they sometimes seem to be!Some buildings here were rebuilt in the 1970s/80s, but preserved the line of the mediaeval Row. |
 If we look across to the
south side of Watergate Street, just past the nearest column in the painting above, we can see the peaked roof of God's
Providence House. This view shows the house after its rebuild in 1862, and by doing so dates that painting 1862 or
later. But Louise also painted it in its earlier form as we see at right, in her painting entitled God's
Providence House, Watergate Street. [Both Grosvenor and in Picturesque
Chester. Not known if prints are available.]
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One of the pleasures of Louise Rayner's paintings is the way you find pictures within a picture, such as this detail
above left from South Side of Watergate Street - shoppers' animated conversation by the stalls, a
donkey loaded with produce, baskets in the gutter, a young girl surveying the scene while behind her a boy sits half-
hidden on the steps up to the Row. Above them, the crowd of onlookers with two gossiping women at right. And the tatty,
neglected air of the buildings: crumbling plaster, battered wood, damage to the Row's railing. Normal daily life in
microcosm.
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Above, in Watergate Street, Chester, we see the complete picture, looking back the way we've come - back up most of Watergate Street, over the Cross
into Eastgate Street, and in the distance East Gate itself. The black house to the right is Bishop Lloyd's Palace, with
its very detailed carvings of scenes from the Bible, the 3-legged symbol of the Isle of Man, and more. Louise reproduced
this detail to considerable effect, and put similar effort into the roof line, as can be seen in the second close-up
view below. 
The painting is not later than 1899, as the sash windows in the Palace were replaced by leaded lights in that year. Students of fashion may be able to date it the painting more accurately, but the lack of tram lines offers no assistance, as the Baedeker street map of Chester shows that no line ran that way as late as 1910 (if ever). Three Watergate Street pictures have been auctioned by Bonhams and Christies between 2003 and 2006, with prices of £4,700, £14,500 and £28,690. [Grosvenor Museum collection, included in Picturesque Chester, and large print available.]  This second
view of Watergate Street looking East - from a print that passed through the hands of antiquemaps.com in 2005 - is similar to
the one earlier, in that the buildings seem little changed. That said, the clothes have a more modern feel to them,
the long wheelbarrow at right with two small children riding in it is a very nice touch, and we see a new and
interesting section of Watergate Row South just beside them. Because the street is quieter, we see more of the street
level buildings, and because the picture is lighter, we see more detail. And at this point we are reminded of Peter
Boughton's remarks noted earlier: the shadows are long enough for early morning, but they seem to fall from due north!
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Louise first(?) sketched the palace in the 1860s, and the enlargement above from her sketchbook provides a
closeup of her careful work on the decorative detail.At left is the same sketch showing the full height of the building, and at a guess, she would have been standing or sitting at the end of Watergate Row North, pictured earlier, when she made her record. Already, her figures have the informality of everyday poses that so characterise her paintings. This sketch also includes a detail that we haven't seen in any of her paintings of the building - the name of the street level business, which is just readable in the sketch as Ayrton and Groome.  At right,
we have Watergate Street and Holy Trinity Church. Watergate Street is now noticeably
starting to drop away towards the river, but has not yet run out of buildings. Just ahead to the right is Trinity
Street, and immediately beyond it is Holy Trinity Church. We cannot see much of the church, but the spire was possibly
brand-new when Louise did her painting. Until the 1860s, the church had had a square tower, but this was strengthened in
the course of a general rebuild, and the new spire erected upon it. So the painting cannot be earlier than 1869. In the
distance, just over the carters' heads we get a glimpse of what might well be the Watergate itself, rebuilt in much the
same way as Eastgate, and less than a decade afterwards.[Grosvenor Museum collection, larger view included in Picturesque Chester, not known if a print is available.] Go east to Foregate Street and Eastgate Street by clicking here. 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, May 2006.
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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