Colonnades

A committee from the Council visited Chester to inspect streets where the first floor of the buildings extend over the pavement thus providing shelter for shoppers in wet weather. This may be where the idea came from that Chesterfield has so many black and white buildings because the Borough Engineer at the time, Vincent Smith, admired Chester. It was the colonnades that the committee was interested in not the black and white design, although this might well have inspired the change of design for the Victoria. All the new buildings erected on Knifesmithgate had colonnades, including the new front of the King and Miller (demolished to make way for Litttlewoods – now Primark). However Swallows did not have a colonnade on Knifesmithgate as the rest of the buildings on that side were not rebuilt.

Side of Swallows