Chester Picturehouse is a very welcome addition, but it is still a chain cinema inside a new development. It does not have the scruffy romance of an old picture palace, and the cost can creep once tickets, snacks and drinks join forces. Still, for a city-centre cinema with decent design, proper screens and a programme beyond the most obvious releases, it is a strong Chester option.
What it is actually like
Chester Picturehouse is the six-screen cinema in the Chester Northgate development, tucked into Hunter Street beside the newer food, drink and public-square bit of the city centre. It is not a creaky old independent with mystery carpet and seats that remember the 1980s. This is a modern Picturehouse: designed interiors, comfortable screens, a proper cafe-bar and a film programme that mixes blockbusters with arthouse, classics, family screenings and special events.
The venue leans hard into the nice cinema trip feeling. It feels more dressed than your average multiplex, which is part of the appeal. You can make it a full little plan rather than just arriving in the dark, eating something loud from a bag and leaving.
What to expect
Expect six screens, comfortable seats, a polished foyer, a first-floor cafe-bar and a showtime-led day rather than standard attraction opening hours. The cinema says it opens at least 15 minutes before the first film each day, so check the listings before wandering over like it is a normal all-day attraction. Food and drink are part of the offer: tea, cake, pizzas, toasties, wine, draught beer, bottled beer, popcorn and the usual cinema snacks.
Avoid if
Avoid if your only measure of a cinema is the cheapest possible ticket and the largest possible bucket of cola. Picturehouse is generally more nice evening out than bargain-bin multiplex. Also avoid if you want historic Chester atmosphere. This is part of the new Northgate development, not a timber-framed oddity with a ghost in the projection room.
Nearby plan
The obvious plan is Chester Market first, Picturehouse second. That gives you food, drink and a film without much walking or weather exposure. Storyhouse is also nearby if you are doing a bigger culture day, and Northgate Street gives you plenty of pre- or post-film options.
Photos
Photos from Google Places. The TTDC illustration remains the main image at the top.
If Chester Picturehouse is full or shut.
Storyhouse Storyhouse is Chester's cultural centre — a converted 1930s cinema on Hunter Street housing a theatre, cinema, library, and cafe bar under one roof. It has been a genuinely transformative addition to the city since it opened and draws people in for everything from major touring productions to independent films to a coffee and a browse. One of Chester's most important and enjoyable spaces. 
The Kitchen The Kitchen is the Storyhouse restaurant for brunch, lunch, dinner and the useful business of eating before or after whatever is on. It works because it is inside the building, not because it is trying to be Chester's biggest dining secret. Very handy when theatre, cinema, library and food all need to happen under one roof. 
Lockwood & Company Lockwood & Co. is the central bar inside Chester Market, named for T.M. Lockwood & Sons and shaped around the three arches of the old Coachworks Arcade frontage. It works less like a traditional pub and more like the drinks engine for the whole hall: cocktails, twelve draught taps, a serious wine list and enough range to keep mixed groups in one place.