Chester: a modernist city?

Chester is famous for a number of things, including its Roman heritage and fine Victorian buildings (not to mention Hollyoaks!). This Saturday, a walking tour will be showing off another, less-celebrated side of the city: its 20th-Century architecture. Be prepared to be open-minded about one of the most maligned periods of British architecture and town planning, and you’ll discover some of Chester’s hidden gems. Led by the North West branch of the Twentieth Century Society, which works to champion and protect the best examples of 20th-Century architecture, fans of modernism are in for a treat. The walk will take in the vistas offered by the mid-1960s ring road, which crosses the canal, the city’s Roman Walls and the railway, take a look at a former Odeon cinema and offer a glimpse inside GG Pace’s intriguingly rocket-shaped, recently listed cathedral bell house, built between 1973 and 1975, to name but a few highlights.

Sat 4 Aug, Meet at Chester station, Station Road, CH1 3DR. Tel: 01772 824154, 11am, £5/£4 concessions, www.c20society.org.uk

Photo: monkeymyshkin