Chester Rows east side of Northgate Street. Originally there were also Rows in Lower Bridge Street but these were blocked during the 17th and 18th centuries. As the ground floor buildings are usually lower than the street level, they are sometime known as "crypts". However, as the architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner points out, this is not a strictly accurate description because the level of the floors of the buildings is a half-storey rather than a full-storey level below the street. Rows were built in the four main streets leading from Chester Cross, each of which originated during the settlement's early development. In
Chester 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. Many of the buildings containing portions of the Rows are listed and some are recorded in the English Heritage Archive. The premises on the street and Row levels are used for