The City Walls and Eastgate Clock

As a first-time visitor to Chester, there’s no better way to get your bearings on the city than clambering up the ancient stone steps and completing a circuit of Britain’s most complete defensive walls. The very first walls were constructed in AD 79 using wood; these days the walls are a little sturdier – with the two-mile circuit made up of much, much newer sections, though the preservation has been sensitive.

If I need to get from one end of the city to the other, I’ll often use the walk along the walls to bypass the shopping hordes.

The Eastgate Clock can be found on the most centrally-located stretch of the walls, looming over Eastgate Street. An 1899 addition, to commemorate Queen Victoria’s diamond jubilee, it is thought more people take snaps of this beautiful timepiece than any other in England, apart from Big Ben of course.