Collapsed Chester City Walls section repairs to begin next week

Cheshire West and Chester Council has released a short statement on Thursday afternoon confirming that, four and a half years since the wall section behind 15-19 Newgate Street collapsed, local authority contractors will commence work on the site next week.

The collapsed section of Chester City Walls. Picture: @LoveLifeLossTom/PA.

Councillor Karen Shore, deputy leader of the council and cabinet member for environment, highways and transport, said: "For reasons beyond the control of the council, repairs have not been progressed as quickly as I would have liked, however this is a significant capital scheme involving a scheduled ancient monument that has required a great deal of planning with our heritage engineers, project managers, contractors and insurers, together with a great deal of technical work required to overcome the challenges of accessing such a constrained site and to obtain the relevant consents from English Heritage.

“The last of those challenges has now been overcome and I look forward to seeing the scheme progress.”

Following the collapse in 2020, the council built a temporary walkway incorporated into the scaffolding needed to prop up the wall.

The collapsed section of Chester City Walls. Picture: @LoveLifeLossTom/PA.

The scaffold was carefully designed to protect the Wesley Church Centre, take into account crypts and other buried archaeology between the Church and the walls, and maintain a fire escape route for the surrounding buildings.

More scaffold propping has been designed to support the partially-collapsed inner wall to prevent any further damage, with a roof added for further protection.

Any invasive repair, maintenance and conservation work on the City Walls needs scheduled monument consent from Historic England.