Chester Rows, 1895

Chester Rows consist of covered walkways at the first floor behind which are entrances to shops and other premises. At street level is another set of shops and other premises, many of which are entered by going down a few steps. The Rows, found in each of the four main streets of the city of Chester, Cheshire, England, are unique; nothing precisely similar exists anywhere else in the world. Dating from the medieval era, the Rows may have been built on top of rubble remaining from the ruins of Roman buildings, but their origin is still subject to speculation. In some places the continuity of the Rows has been blocked by enclosure or by new buildings, but in others modern buildings have retained the Rows in their designs. Undercrofts or "crypts" were constructed beneath the buildings in the Rows. The undercrofts were in stone while most of the buildings in the Rows were in timber. Today about 20 of the stone undercrofts still exist, but at the level of the Rows very little medieval fabric remains.

Photo credit: "The Cross and Rows, Chester, Cheshire, England, ca. 1895" by Detroit Publishing Co., under license from Photoglob Zürich.  Via Alabaster.