This fine watercolour by Louise Rayner depicts two of the lost pubs of Chester's Bridge Street, The Old Vaults- better known to generations of regulars as Barlow's- and The Harp & Crown, later known as The Grotto Hotel (a photograph of it is at the bottom of this page), between which runs Commonhall Street.

Barlow's (28 Bridge Street and 26 Bridge Street Row), named after one William Barlow, who was landlord in 1898, closed for good on the 15th March 2002 when owners Scottish & Newcastle found that it (to quote the Chester Chronicle) "did not fit in with their company portfolio, which is geared towards theme pubs". Frank Marnell, secretary of the Chester Licenced Victuallers Association (and landlord of the Watergate Inn), commented, "the brewery has sold out on Ye Old Vaults".

Established in 1789 and refurbished in 1900, Barlow's was unusual in being on two levels, one bar on the street and the other on the Row above. You could walk from the cellar up to the top floor, three floors above street level, making it one of very few complete Rows buildings in Chester.

It was yet another Chester pub with a reputation for being haunted- over the years there have been reports of loud groaning wails and banging noises. It is said that these emanated from the spirit of an old-time landlord who had been very proud of his inn and dedicated his life to maintaining its quality. Unlike the philistine Scottish & Newcastle, sadly, who briskly turned the listed building into a 'shopping development'- the frontage was torn out and replaced by bland plate glass windows and the premises initially became yet another clothes shop (illustrated right.) and is now a hairdressers premises. Self-catering holiday apartments have been created in the rooms above.

(See the ghosts entry in our site index for links to many other reputedly-haunted Chester pubs.)

Talking of spirits, William, a descendent of George Barlow used to blend and bottle his own whiskey at the back of the pub he also used to bottle beer and soft drinks. A later George Barlow was licencee in 1942 and Nev Hewitt in 1976-79. Interestingly, the name 'Hewitt' appears on the building's facade in another famous 19th century painting of Bridge Street by Louise Raynor.

Reader Annette Edwards wrote to tell us that one of her family, Arthur Wilcoxon was the publican at the Olde Vaults from 1871 to at least 1875. By 1877 he had moved to 9 Paradise Row, a long-vanished street that once faced onto the Roodee.

Barlow's upstairs bar or lounge was know as “the passion parlour" in World War II as it was a favourite, intimate rendezvous for servicemen and their lady friends.

The Grotto Hotel- no. 34, across Commonhall Street and next door-but-one to Barlow's. In the 1980s the Grotto became for a while the Sir Edward's Wine Bar until being transformed into a branch of Liberty's clothes store.

It had formerly been known as The Harp & Crown, mentioned in a 1751 edition of the Cheshire Sheaf as being "next to Common-Hall Lane". In 1707, one Thomas Heath petitioned "to build a shop in the Row before the Harp and Crown Inn". It was recorded as being used as a polling station in 1809.

It was one of a number of properties in Chester to be subject to the Execution Rent. Execution Rent Tenants were bound to keep watch for the city on three nights in the year, namely on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and St. Stephen's Day (26th December) and they were bound to mount guard over and conduct felons and robbers as far as the gallows. For their services these tenants were "exempt from attendance on all inquisitions, juries and assizes, except when held before the Lord, the Prince and the Earl of Chester".