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 Watertower |
A Virtual Stroll Around the Walls of Chester |
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Right: The canal frozen solid during the long hard winter of 1992. Telford's Warehouse is in the background. (Photograph by the author). At
one
point, British
Waterways planned
to
convert
the
building
next
to
it
into
a
hotel
and
hinted
at
turning
Telford's
into
their
idea
of
a
'businessman's
bar'
connected
to
it
by
a
walkway.
Public
opinion-
even
from
within
the
city
council-
considered
many
of
BW's
ideas
for
this
sensitive
site
to
be
'ill
judged'. Chester's Member of Parliament- and local resident- Christine Russell admirably expressed the view that BW's plans "should aspire to the standard of Telford's
rather than dragging Telford's down to the level of BW's plans". The
short-sighted scheme
was
soon
dropped and we're
happy
to
report
that
the
future
of
Telford's
as
we
know
and
love
it
is, for the moment,
now
assured. This anonymous watercolour shows the Tower Wharf area as it appeared in 1790; somewhat more rural but, on the whole, entirely familiar to modern eyes, Bonewaldesthorne's and the Watertower and Telford's Warehouse looking much as they do to us today.
But then, almost two years later, in May 2003, the local press reported that the future of the entire affair had been again thrown into question. Prompted by the large number of complaints coming from local residents and groups, city planners have, remarkably, requested that the developers ditch their current proposals and enter into fresh negotiations in order to come up with plans that would be rather more acceptable to the local community, not to mention fellow-objectors English Heritage (presumably because of the rotten architecture), Cheshire County Council Highways (because of transport and access issues)- and the increasingly irrelevant Chester Civic Trust (who actually approved the proposed demolition of the unique Electric Light Building and its replacement by some deeply unpleasant and unsuitable glass-and-steel tower blocks just down the road in the so-called Old Port just a few years back. To everyone's relief but theirs, unsuccessfully as it turned out...)
For those readers who would like to know more about Chester's historic canal system, we highly recommend a recently published book edited by local historian and author Gordon Emery (who lives just across the road from Tower Wharf)- The Old Chester Canal: a History and Guide, which is available in local bookshops or send a SAE to 27 Gladstone Road, Chester CH1 4BZ to receive a list of his fascinating and informative books. The remarkable artist John McGahey drew this fascinating view of the Tower Wharf area as he hung beneath his balloon in 1855...
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©
Steve
Howe
/
B&W
Picture
Place
1990-2014
Reportedly
involving
the
construction
of
yet
more
hotels,
apartments
and
offices,
locals
fear
the
changes
may
also
bring
about
the
sweeping
away
or
'prettification'
of
much
that
makes
the
area
special.
To
assist
the
filling-in
process,
at
least
ten
great
old
wooden
canal
boats
had
been
deliberately
sunk
in
the
basin
and
then
covered
over
with
rubble.
An
archaeological
investigation
funded
by
British
Waterways
in
the
Winter
of
1998
rediscovered
these
old
craft
and
they
could
be
viewed
from
the
bridge
crossing
the
canal
at
this
point.
The
majority
of
them
dated
from
the
1870s
and
would
probably
have
been
operated
by
the Shropshire
Union
Canal
Company at
a
time
when
Tower
Wharf
was
one
of
the
prime
staging
posts
on
the
canal
and
had
a
key
role
in
the
early
transport
network
of
the
North
West. 
But
not
for
long,
it
seemed,
for
in June
2001,
British
Waterways
unveiled
their
long-awaited £35 million
"blueprint
for
the
future"
of
the
8.5
acre
brownfield
site.
Working
in
conjunction
with
developers
CTP
Ltd
and
Bellway
Homes,
plans
include
the
construction
of
a
200-bed
hotel,
located
directly
opposite
Telford's Warehouse
(marked
with
a
red
dot
in
the
illustration
below)
and
run
by
"an
international
operator"
(the
1997
planning
permission
was
for
just
80
beds)
and
141
residential
units,
including
a
mixture
of
townhouses,
maisonettes
and
flats-
the
centrepiece
of
which
will
be
a
seven-storey
tower
block
offering
views
over
the
canal
and
designed
to
act
as
a
'focus'
for
the
development.
The
majority
of
the
surrounding
structures
will
be
of
three
and
four
storeys
however. 
Discussions
about
the
proposals
are
currently
underway
with
the
city
council
and
the
influential
resident's
group,
the Canal
Basin
Community
Forum,
and
these,
it
is
said, may result
in
the
provision
of
25%
of
the
site
being
given
over
to
so-called
"affordable"
housing
although
just
where
these
homes
for
'ordinary'
folk
would
be
located
is
as
yet
uncertain. 
This artist's impression of the redeveloped Tower Wharf appeared
during the summer of 2005, when there was a brief flurry of excitement that the project was back on the rails. Telford's Warehouse is on the far right and then it's closely-packed apartment blocks and offices as far as the eye can see... 
After years of delay, work on the new development at Tower Wharf finally got underway in January 2008.
