It rains in Chester. It rains a lot in Chester. The Welsh hills are right there to the west and they collect weather like a sponge before sending it our way. If you’ve come for a day out and the sky has turned the colour of an old roof tile, here’s what to do.
The good news: Chester is unusually well set up for bad weather. The Rows are covered. The cathedral is enormous. There are enough museums, pubs, and tearooms within ten minutes of each other that you can do a full day without ever putting a hood up for more than thirty seconds at a stretch.
The Thing Nobody Else Mentions: the Rows Are an Undercover Route
Most of central Chester is connected by the Rows, the medieval covered walkways that run along Eastgate, Northgate, Watergate, and Bridge Street at first floor level. You can walk from the Eastgate Clock to the High Cross to the Watergate without coming back down to street level. It’s not a perfect circuit, but in a downpour it’s the difference between being soaked and being dry.
Worth knowing for any rainy day. Get up onto the Rows at the Eastgate steps and stay up there as long as you can.
Indoor Things to Do in Chester
Chester Cathedral, Given Proper Time
In good weather most people give the cathedral twenty minutes. In the rain, give it two hours. It’s enormous and there’s more to it than the nave.
The cloisters are the best bit, particularly on a wet afternoon when the light through the medieval windows turns silver. The carved misericords in the choir stalls are extraordinary, and most visitors miss them: the wooden seats lift up to reveal carvings underneath, ranging from biblical scenes to a man being eaten by a dragon, all carved in the 1380s by craftsmen with a sense of humour.
The cathedral also has a tower tour, which sounds like the worst possible activity in the rain but is actually fine, because most of the climb is internal and the view from the top is more atmospheric in bad weather than good. They run it most days. Check before you go.
Chester Cathedral The best rainy-day anchor in the city centre.The Grosvenor Museum
Free. Underrated. About ten minutes’ walk from the centre on Grosvenor Street.
The ground floor has the best Roman tombstone collection in northern Europe, mostly dug up from the city walls themselves where they’d been recycled as building stone in the medieval period. The upper floors have a row of period rooms taking you from a Stuart parlour through to an Edwardian kitchen, which is the sort of thing that sounds dull on paper and turns out to be unexpectedly engrossing in practice, especially if you’ve got children who can be persuaded that Victorian pantries are interesting.
You can spend two hours there easily. Free toilets. Free cloakroom for wet coats.
Sick to Death
Less of a museum, more of a deliberately ghoulish exhibition about the history of disease, surgery, and unpleasant medical practice. Inside St Michael’s Church on Bridge Street.
It’s exactly as morbid as it sounds and it’s surprisingly good. They’ve got the actual implements: the bone saws, the tooth keys, the leech jars. The interpretation is dry and well-written. Not for the squeamish, brilliant for teenagers.
Sick To Death A good call if the group contains teenagers or anyone with a strong stomach.The Chester Storyhouse
Theatre, cinema, library, restaurant, bar, and cafe all in one building, and one of the most successful civic buildings of the last decade. If the rain is properly settling in, you can spend a whole afternoon here without doing anything in particular. There’s almost always a film on. The library has armchairs.
The kitchen is decent and the bar is open all day. It’s the closest thing Chester has to a community living room.
Storyhouse The easy rainy-afternoon fallback: film, library, coffee, bar, and no sense of being moved along.The Proper Afternoon Tea Option
The Chester Grosvenor Hotel
If you want to sit down somewhere comfortable and watch the rain through a window for an hour, the lounge of the Chester Grosvenor Hotel does an afternoon tea that is properly old school: silver stands, finger sandwiches, the works. It’s not cheap. It is one of the best places in town to be on a wet Saturday at three o’clock.
Edgar House
A more affordable alternative is The Edgar House on the city walls, which does tea in a small drawing room overlooking the river. Booking essential for both.
The Pub Strategy for Wet Weather
We covered this in the pub guide, but for a rainy day specifically, the answer is The Pied Bull. Multiple rooms, real fires in winter, food all day, and you can settle in without anyone minding.
If you want canal views with your pint, Old Harkers has big windows and you can watch the rain hit the water, which is more pleasant than it sounds.
The Pied Bull The pub to aim for when the day has fully become a wet-weather operation. The Old Harkers Arms Canal views, big windows, and a better rainy pint than the phrase suggests.What to Skip in the Rain
A Sensible Wet-Weather Day in Chester
Park at one of the Park and Ride sites, because trying to find a city centre car park in the rain is the worst version of itself. Cathedral first thing, when it’s quiet. Coffee in the cathedral cafe or somewhere on Northgate Street. Walk to the Grosvenor Museum via the Rows. Lunch at one of the pubs from the previous guide. Sick to Death or Storyhouse for the afternoon, depending on how grim you’re feeling. Pub for the last hour. Train or bus home.
Total time outdoors in the rain: maybe fifteen minutes, if you plan it properly.
That’s Chester in the wet. It’s a good city for it. Bring proper shoes, not an umbrella, because the wind off the river will turn it inside out before you reach the cathedral, and accept that the pavements are going to be slick.
You’ll have a better day than the people who cancelled.
Frequently Asked Questions
What can you do in Chester when it’s raining?
The cathedral, the Grosvenor Museum, Sick to Death, the Storyhouse, and the Rows are all indoor or covered. Most of central Chester is connected by the covered Rows walkways, so you can move between attractions without getting wet.
Are the Chester Rows covered?
Yes. The Rows are medieval covered walkways at first floor level along Eastgate, Northgate, Watergate, and Bridge Street. You can walk substantial stretches of central Chester under cover by staying on the Rows.
Is Chester Cathedral free?
Chester Cathedral asks for a donation rather than charging admission. The tower tour is paid and runs most days; check the cathedral website for current times.
What’s the best museum in Chester?
The Grosvenor Museum on Grosvenor Street is free and has the best Roman tombstone collection in northern Europe along with a series of period rooms. It is consistently underrated by visitors who don’t know it’s there.
Is Chester Zoo worth visiting in the rain?
Light rain is fine and the indoor pavilions are excellent. Heavy rain makes the outdoor exhibits miserable, and the zoo is three miles out of the centre, so check the forecast before committing.