Tag: Chester

Halloween collab ahoy! Dark Chester tour and Chester on a Plate tour join forces

The Brewery Tap, Chester. Image: David Atkinson.

We did a special tourist-guide collab for Halloween this year.

My Dark Chester tour joined forced with Chester on a Plate tour to offer a unique Halloween experience — spooky stories and fiendish food.

We visited three of Chester’s great, independent places to eat and drink, namely Greenhouse in Rufus Court, The Brewery Tap pub and Providence Gin.

In between, I kept the group entrained with some of my favourite spooky stories from Chester’s dark-tourism heritage.

It was a fun evening and great to collaborate with another Chester-based freelance tourist guide.

You can see images from the evening at my Instagram @darkchestertour.

More from Dark Chester Tour on Viatour.

Liked this? Read also Ghost stories and Victorian Gothic: my public speaking engagements for this winter.

 

 

 

 

Dark Chester presents Victorian Gothic — new for autumn 2024

David Atkinson, Dark Chester Tours

Dark Chester [pictured above; image via Stuart Robinson Photography] presents Victorian Gothic next week.

It’s a new evening walking tour with a literary motif, delving into Chester’s golden age during the reign of Queen Victoria.

It was an age of innovation, global power and flushing toilets. But the Victorians were also obsessed with ghost stories and the supernatural.

The tour traces a social history of Chester and the statement buildings of its Victorian Gothic makeover, interspersed with some Gothic readings and poetry from the heart of Victorian darkness.

This tour has evolved from the Midsummer Gothic tour I led for the Chester Heritage Festival earlier this summer.

Victorian Gothic departs Wednesday, September 4 from the Visitor Information Centre, Town Hall Square, at 5.30pm. It repeats selected Wednesdays throughout autumn into winter and by appointment for private groups.

Dark Chester, meanwhile, continues throughout the winter, departing at the new time of 5.30pm from September 21.

I’m adding both tours to Viatour from September but you can still also buy tickets directly from the Visitor Information Centre.

More from Dark Chester Tour on Viatour.

Liked this? Read also Dark Chester named winner at the Marketing Cheshire Tourism Awards.

The best places to celebrate Cheshire Day across my home region

To mark Cheshire Day, I was commissioned by Marketing Cheshire to write a guest blog post for their public-facing website for visitors.

The blog includes references to some of the attractions across the region from Chester via Crewe to Macclesfield with its former Art Deco cinema turned food court [pictured above].

Here’s a taster of the text:

March 30 marks the date the county was given its own Charter of Liberties by King Edward I in 1300 — in effect its very own Magna Carta.

Wiley Cheshire had managed to agree its own, separate charter to the 1215 document, designed to prevent the king from exploiting his power, thanks to Ranulf le Meschin, the hard-bargaining, third Earl of Chester.

And, while the exact date is subject to some debate, it reflects the long history of Cheshire as a place of national status.

Read the full post via the Marketing Cheshire blog

I’m available for content writing and gust blog posts.

Dark Chester presents: Dark Dinner — the spookiest supper in Chester

Dark Chester tour [pictured above] shines a flickering candlelight into the darkest corners of Chester’s dark-tourism heritage.

You may have already seen us walking around Chester, or previously joined us for a walk through the mists of dark history.

But now it’s time to explore the city afresh. And, what’s more, we’re going even darker.

For Halloween this year, we’ll be leading the darkest ever Dark Chester walking tour, bringing a frisson of Gothic noir to your October half term.

Expect new spooky stories, frightening folk tales and new perspectives as the darkness of the winter months engulfs us.

Plus, join us for an exclusive event on Thursday, October 26.

Dark Chester presents: Dark Dinner

We will lead a 90-minute Dark Chester tour, departing from Town Hall Square at 6pm. Then we finish our walk on Lower Bridge Street for a two-course menu served at King’s Kitchen restaurant at The Brewery Tap [pictured below] from 7.30pm.

Expect good food, craft ales and, over dinner, some spine-chilling ghost stories recounted by the tourist guide in a gloriously atmospheric setting.

Tickets cost £45pp and are available now via the Visitor Information Centre in Chester, or by calling 01244 405340. The tour is suitable for ages 10+.

Join us this Halloween and let’s take a walk on the darkest side ever.

Follow @darkchestertour on Instagram

More information from The Brewery Tap.

Liked this? Then read Dark Chester runs special spooky tours for the Chester Heritage Festival.