I’m not much of a night owl these days. With a small child at home, I’m more likely to be found reading bedtime stories than out on the town.
An article on the Guardian’s website caught my eye, however. The piece about Chester’s budget eats is more top-10 standard fare. Some of the tips are pretty decent, although Cestrians may baulk at inclusion of DeliKate (below, right) with its surly staff.
But the comments section – you gotta love the comments section – provides a more stimulating read, especially the bit about Chester par nuit. Try this for size:
‘In the evening the town centre seems to be entirely populated by youths in Corsa’s and Saxo’s driving at breakneck speed and slowing down only to stick their pimply little heads out the window to shout racial abuse and tell you to go home.’
I’m hardly a regular at the Cruise nightclub, or often found propping up the bar in Brannigans, but is Chester really that bad after dark?
The comments come soon after local tourism authorities revealed plans for a £20m economic boost to the city, aiming to of attract an extra 200,000 visitors.
The centrepiece of the initiative is Rhino Mania, a project involving 70 life-size fibreglass rhinos to form a tourist trail around the city.
Hoodies in Corsas or rhinos hiding in the bushes – has anyone else had a bad experience in Chester after dark?
And is this harming Chester’s image as a tourist-spot city?
Post your comments below.
This may sound very unfair, since I haven’t visited Chester since the Guild had its AGM there years ago. But I did visit it fairly often before, and I always felt it was lacking a certain something, both after and before dark.
I suppose the fibreglass rhinos are like those cows you see anywhere, or the lions or bears or whatever they were that were around Munich, or was it Berlin. Still, I suppose people like them and it will give the local artists and community groups something to do.
But what Chester needs is more of a sense of people working, thinking, living – some quirky shops, some businesses making interesting things, museums about something new and different. A space for putting on truly interesting community artwork – the Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green has some good ideas.
This is all very easy for the armchair town planner like me to say of course, not so easy to put into practice. It needs someone in Chester itself to come up with some good ideas. Anyway, good luck to the rhinos.
Thanks Jenny, yes, I think independent shops and arts venues are the two things Chester has really lost in the recession. Personally, I’m not sure a bunch of fibreglass rhinos is the answer.
This may sound very unfair, since I haven’t visited Chester since the Guild had its AGM there years ago. But I did visit it fairly often before, and I always felt it was lacking a certain something, both after and before dark.
I suppose the fibreglass rhinos are like those cows you see anywhere, or the lions or bears or whatever they were that were around Munich, or was it Berlin. Still, I suppose people like them and it will give the local artists and community groups something to do.
But what Chester needs is more of a sense of people working, thinking, living – some quirky shops, some businesses making interesting things, museums about something new and different. A space for putting on truly interesting community artwork – the Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green has some good ideas.
This is all very easy for the armchair town planner like me to say of course, not so easy to put into practice. It needs someone in Chester itself to come up with some good ideas. Anyway, good luck to the rhinos.
Thanks Jenny, yes, I think independent shops and arts venues are the two things Chester has really lost in the recession. Personally, I’m not sure a bunch of fibreglass rhinos is the answer.